Naples, David LaChapelle on display at the Maschio Angioino with 40 works

The art of David LaChapelle is coming to Naples with an exhibition specially designed for the city. The exhibition, titled simply David LaChapelle, takes place in the Palatine Chapel of the Maschio Angioino from Dec. 8, 2021 to March 6, 2022. Curated by ONO contemporary art, Vittoria Mainoldi and Mario Martin Pareja, produced by Next Exhibition, and organized in collaboration with theDepartment of Culture and Tourism of the City of Naples, Dreams Cultural Association, Alta Classe Lab, Fast Forward, and Next Event, the exhibition traces the highlights of the American artist’s career, presenting forty pieces drawn from the various significant periods of the artist’s career (from 1980 to the present) offering a selection of previously unseen works from the photographer’s archive, combined with iconic masterpieces and several previews.

The aim of the exhibition is to explore the artist’s acute depiction of humanity in the times in which we live. The survey presents works intended to help define LaChapelle’s role as one of the world’s most fluent artists. Fully aware of creative artifice, LaChapelle’s images are distinguished by their ability to relate to and dialogue with manifestations of Western civilization on broad themes from the classical Renaissance to the present day. Through his evolving style, the photographer’s body of work communicates the fears, obsessions and desires of our contemporary society, which increasingly elude easy categorization. Works in the exhibition include the seminal Deluge (2007), in which LaChapelle reimagines a biblical flood, setting it in Las Vegas, translating and making contemporary Michelangelo’s work of the Sistine Chapel, and Rape of Africa (2009) featuring model Naomi Campbell as Venus in a Botticelli-inspired scene set in African gold mines. The exhibition will also feature works from the vivid and engaging Land SCAPE (2013) and Gas (2013) series, still-life projects in which LaChapelle assembles found objects to create oil refineries and gas stations before presenting them as relics in a land reclaimed by nature.

Finally, exclusive to the Palatine Chapel, some of LaChapelle’s hand-painted photographic negatives from the 1980s are on view, as the teenage artist explored ideas of metaphysics and loss against the backdrop of the devastating AIDS epidemic. These negatives will be part of a site-specific installation and will enter into dialogue with LaChapelle’s more recent works, some presented for the first time on this occasion, in which the photographer is as if captured by a reverential awe of the sublime and a search for spirituality, as can be seen in Behold (2017), the exhibition’s signature work.

David LaChapelle was born in Connecticut, USA, in 1963. He attended high school at the North Carolina School of The Arts. Initially enrolled as a painter, he developed an analog photographic technique by hand-painting his negatives to achieve an exceptional color spectrum before developing his own films. At the age of seventeen, he moved to New York and, after his first photography exhibition at Gallery 303, was hired by Andy Warhol to work on “Interview Magazine.” As a result of his talent, LaChapelle began to expand the genre of photography: his tableaux, portraits, and still lifes challenged the parameters of traditional photography, and his work quickly gained much international recognition. In the decades that followed, LaChapelle became one of the most published photographers in the world: most notable are books such as LaChapelle Land (1996), Hotel LaChapelle (1999), Heaven to Hell (2006), Lost & Found, and Good News (2017). At the same time, his work expanded to the production of music videos, films and theater projects. His 2005 feature film Rize was released in theaters in 17 countries. Many of his photographic and film works have become iconic archetypes of 21st century America. Think also of the illustrious personalities he has portrayed including Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Benicio del Toro, Marilyn Manson, Elizabeth Taylor, Pamela Anderson, River Phoenix, Michael Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Uma Thurman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Hillary Clinton, Lance Armstrong, and David Beckham. For the past three decades, LaChapelle has exhibited internationally in galleries and museums including the National Portrait Gallery (London), Musée de Monnaie (Paris), Barbican Centre (London), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Musée d’Orsay (Paris), Groninger Museum (Netherlands), Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, and Palazzo Reale in Milan.

The exhibition opens Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Closed Sundays. Tickets: full 14 euros, reduced (over 65, under 12, concessionary, university) 12 euros, groups of minimum 15 and maximum 25 people 10 euros, school groups of at least 15 pupils 10 euros, reduced for students cultural heritage, art history, institutes and academies 8 euros. Open ticket at the price of 16 euros. Free for children under 6 years old. For all info you can visit the exhibition website.

Pictured: David LaChapelle, House at the End of the World, 2005, Los Angeles

Naples, David LaChapelle on display at the Maschio Angioino with 40 works

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