DAVID LACHAPELLE

Press Release

DAVID LACHAPELLE

EARLY WORK 1984-1988

The last portrait of Andy Warhol before he died, by David LaChapelle, is currently featured in an exhibition of LaChapelle’s early work at Michelman Fine Art in New York.

Michelman Fine Art (MFA), is presenting its first exhibition of contemporary art with a selection of the early work of POST-MODERN POP photographer, David LaChapelle. The photographs will be shown in New York for the first time in over 20 years, when LaChapelle had his first solo shows. Immersed in the art world of Warhol, Basquiat, Haring, Schnabel and other 80s icons, LaChapelle developed an iconic vision of his own. Over the years, his fine art photographs evolved into elaborate theatrical fantasies on the themes of religion, sex, death, politics, money and consumption. His lush photo-scapes, which appear to be painterly, are influenced by Pop art, Surrealism, Rennaissance and Baroque art. The current show reveals the beginnings of his exploration with these influences and themes. The early works include examples from his first show, “Angels, Saints and Martyrs”, in which black and white figures seem to transcend the physical realm; as well as other series that employ elements of collage, saturated colors and raw nude figures -- recalling the ideas that shaped his later, multi-faceted photo-scapes.

Known primarily as private dealers in important works of Impressionism, Modern and Post-War Art, Michelman Fine Art is presenting the exhibition in a new gallery space on Madison Avenue, steps away from the Whitney Museum.

The exhibition, “David LaChapelle Early Work: 1984 –1988” will run from May 2nd – June 15th at 1020 Madison Avenue, 3rd fl, between 78th st and 79th st. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10am-5pm.


DAVID LA CHAPPELLE
Biography

David LaChapelle’s photography career began in the 1980’s in New York City galleries. After attending the North Carolina School of Arts, he moved to New York where he enrolled at both the Art Students League and the School of Visual Arts. With shows at 303 Gallery, Trabia McAffee and others, his work caught the eye of his hero Andy Warhol and the editors of Interview Magazine, who offered him his first professional photography job.

Working at Interview Magazine, LaChapelle quickly began photographing some of the most famous faces of the times. Before long, he was shooting for the top editorial publications of the world, and creating the most memorable advertising campaigns of a generation. His striking images have appeared on and in between the covers of magazines such as Italian Vogue, French Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Rolling Stone and i-D. In his twenty-year career in publishing, he has photographed personalities as diverse as Tupac Shakur, Madonna, Amanda Lepore, Eminem, Philip Johnson, Lance Armstrong, Pamela Anderson, Lil’ Kim, Uma Thurman, Elizabeth Taylor, David Beckham, Paris Hilton, Jeff Koons, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hillary Clinton, Muhammad Ali, and Britney Spears, to name just a small selection.

After establishing himself as a fixture amongst contemporary photography, LaChapelle expanded his work to include direction of music videos, live theatrical events, and documentary film. His directing credits include music videos for artists such as Christina Aguilera, Moby, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, The Vines and No Doubt. His stage work includes Elton John’s The Red Piano, the Caesar’s Palace spectacular he designed and directed in 2004, which just recently ended its five year run in Las Vegas. His burgeoning interest in film led him to make the short documentary Krumped, an award-winner at Sundance from which he developed RIZE, the feature film acquired for worldwide distribution by Lion’s Gate Films. The film was released in the US and internationally in the Summer of 2005 to huge critical acclaim, and was chosen to open the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.

Recent years have brought LaChapelle back to where he started, with some of the world’s most prestigious galleries and museums exhibiting his works. Galleries such as Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York, Jablonka Galerie in Germany; Alex Daniels Gallery in Amsterdam; Maruani & Noirhomme in Belgium; the Palazzo delle Esposizioni and Palazzo Reale in Italy; The Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin: as well as at the Robilant + Voena Gallery and Barbican Museum in London.

In 2009, exhibitions in Mexico City at the Museo del Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, in Paris at the Musee de La Monnaie, and in Guadalajara at the Museo de Las Artes broke attendance records. These shows presented his latest series of works with which LaChapelle has broken out of the frame, presenting three-dimensional sculptural murals. In 2010, LaChapelle mounted two record-breaking solo shows in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei as well as the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. His latest series of works employ the use of his own photography in collage format, deconstructing the image he has photographed, and constructing it into new collage works.

His ability to create scenes of extreme reality using rich and vibrant colors makes his work instantly recognizable and often imitated. He continues to be inspired by everything from art history and street culture, to the Hawaiian jungle in where he lives, creating both a record and mirror of all facets of popular culture today. He is quite simply the only photographic artist working in the world today whose work has transcended the fashion or celebrity magazine context it was made for, and has been enshrined by the notoriously discerning contemporary art intelligentsia.