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 DAVID LACHAPELLE
Galleria Poggiali e Forconi

FLORENCE

1 March  - 6 May 2009

On 28 February 2009 the one man show of the multi-faceted American photographer David LaChapelle has opened at the Galleria Poggiali e Forconi in Florence, in Via della Scala 35A - just opposite the Casa Howard and the Officina dè profumi di Santa Maria Novella.

About 10 years after his last show in Italy LaChapelle has chosen to return to a private gallery, after having displayed his works in prestigious public sites, and currently in Paris. The exhibition is a tribute to the artist, a celebration of his career, consisting of 39 works and 1 video, which is the backstage for one of his latest spectacular works, Deluge, inspired by a scene painted in the Sistine Chapel.

The display features four main sections: Deluge, Recollections in America, Star System and Heaven to Hell. The intention is to present a transversal show focused on the lesser known recent works of the artist (the series Awakened and Recollections in America) alongside the works for which LaChapelle is famous: Pietà with Courtney Love, Hi Bitch and Bye Bitch with Paris Hilton and Bon Apetite with Naomi Campbell, displayed in different areas of the gallery.

In Deluge LaChapelle criticises rampant consumerism, the convulsive attachment to tangible goods and the collapse of universal values such as solidarity between peoples and compassion. Belonging to this section is Cathedral, an evocation of nineteenth-century neo-mediaeval painting; in the centre, a beam of supernatural light emerging from a rift in the stained glass window behind the altar strikes a group of faithful at prayer. The dismay on the faces of those present, submerged up to the waist in water, is proportionate to their hope of salvation. Only a child turns her back on the light, gazing back at the observer impassively like a witness to the time, in line with the consolidated tradition of Renaissance painting. Water returns again in the cycle Awakened, which shows ordinary people wearing their everyday clothes immersed one by one in a tank of water. In this way the artist strives to underscore how universal rebirth emerges through individual destiny. The same is true in Statue, where salvation belongs to works of art alone, which are nevertheless left to their own devices.


The photographs of the section Recollections in America date to the Seventies and portray groups of friends gathered for family parties and other occasions. After buying them, LaChapelle manipulated them via the insertion of objects and figures extraneous to the original context, such as flags, weapons and symbols of American power. The Seventies marked the waning of the so-called “American dream”, and in this way LaChapelle aims to ironically comment on the contradictions of a class – in particular the suburban middle class – that lives in constant conflict with nationalist sentiments, torn between pacifism and interventionism.

The protagonist of Star System is the public image that is the most important visiting card for every celebrity, from Paris Hilton to Courtney Love. The artist grasps the aspects of personality that capture in an exuberant and incisive manner the narcissistic nature and exhibitionist attitudes of all those belonging to the star system. Normality is ruled out, because the real attraction is every conceivable form of excess. Each of these portraits underscores how the icons of the star system morph into an alter ego to which they entrust their identity.

The section Heaven to Hell presents a series of three photos addressing the theme of death that grazes us or strikes us every day. Two of the images show a raging fire as it destroys the decor of an interior; the third is a contemporary Pietà interpreted by Courtney Love holding in her arms the dead body of a young drug addict. The drama of grief for the loss of a loved one, condensed in the historic iconography of the Pietà, extends to embrace the whole of humanity, giving shape to a sentiment of empathy that feeds on influences deriving from LaChapelle’s profound passion for the history of art.

The show will be accompanied by a catalogue with text by Lorenzo Poggiali and a conversation between David LaChapelle and the Italian curator Gianni Mercurio.

David LaChapelle was born in 1963 in Connecticut. His artistic education began at the North Carolina School of Arts and then continued in New York, where he enrolled at the Art Students League and at the School of Visual Arts. Even before he had finished secondary school, Andy Warhol offered him his first professional assignment, commissioning a photo session for the magazine Interview. LaChapelle has also done photo work and covers for leading international magazines, including Vanity Fair, Flaunt, i-D, The Face, Arena and Rolling Stone. His first photo book LaChapelle Land (1996) enabled him to make his style known to a broader public. The next volume Hotel LaChapelle (1998) was one of the best-selling photo books of all time. In 2006 he published the collections Artists and Prostitutes, in limited edition, and Heaven to Hell. The photographer then turned his attention to film directing, producing musical videoclips, theatre shows and documentaries.

DAVID LACHAPELLE
FLORENCE
Galleria Poggiali e Forconi
Curated by Lorenzo Poggiali

Via della Scala, 35/A
Project Room
Via Benedetta, 3 /rosso
50123 Firenze
1 March – 6 May 2009
opening hours: Monday - Saturday 10-13 / 15.30-19.30 Sunday by appointment
T. 055.287748 F. 055.2729406
e-mail info@poggialieforconi.it
www.poggialieforconi.it  
Entrance free

Information and photographic material from:
Ufficio Stampa Delos - T. 02.8052151 - delosmi@tin.it - www.delosrp.it

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