David LaChapelle's exhibition at Robilant + Voena in London is organised in conjunction with Rafael Jablonka, Edmondo di Robilant and Marco Voena. Six works from the series Jesus is my Homeboy with Evidence of a Miraculous Event; Intervention; Last Supper; Annointing; Loaves and Fishes and Sermon will be shown. Illustrated in 2003 in the British magazine I-D, the works construe a fierce critique of a consumer society. His subjects are multi-ethnic groups of youths who come from a rap and hip-hop culture and wear underground clothing with the camouflaged street fashion of the designer Patty Wilson. Christ with finely chiseled, Apollo like features amongst them, is suspended into the composition as a metaphysical visitor.
David LaChapelle, who regards as his master and guide Michelangelo, was born in Fairfield, Connecticut in 1963. At the age of six, he took a photograph of his mother during a vacation in Puerto Rico. Since then, he has been obsessed with photography. He studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts, Arts Student League (NYC) and the School of Visual Arts (NYC). Andy Warhol gave him his first job at Interview, and from 1987, he has been working as a professional fashion photographer for magazines such as Details, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Vogue, The Face, and others. He has also made music videos and a documentary film (Rize 2004). In 2004, he was the winner of the title, Director of the Year for the Best Rock Video at the 13th Annual MVPA Awards. In 2003, he was listed among the Ten Most Important Photographers Now by the American Photo Magazine. His photographs have been presented in several museum shows: at the Kunsthaus, Vienna (2002), the Barbican Gallery, London (2003), the MALBA Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2007), the Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin (2007), and the Palazzo Reale, Milan (2007). David LaChapelle currently lives and works in Los Angeles and Hawaii.
