Thursday, February 27, 2025 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm | Main Gallery
Above Image: Detail of David LaChapelle, "Light Within," 1986. © David LaChapelle. Courtesy of the artist.
NCMA Winston-Salem (formerly SECCA) is proud to present David LaChapelle: Dear Sonja, a special retrospective exhibition featuring more than 80 works spanning 40 years of the artist's career. An opening reception with the artist and curator will be held Thursday, Feb. 27 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Registration coming soon.
David LaChapelle was born in Connecticut in 1963 and attended high school at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. Originally enrolled as a painting student with a reverence for art history, he developed his analog photograph-editing technique by hand painting negatives to achieve an abstract spectrum of color before processing his film.
At age 17 LaChapelle moved to New York City. Following his first photography show at 303 Gallery, he was hired by Andy Warhol to work at Interview magazine. Through his mastery of color, unique composition, and imaginative narratives, LaChapelle began to expand the genre of photography. By 1997 the New York Times predicted he "is certain to influence the work of a new generation ... in the same way that Mr. [Richard] Avedon pioneered so much of what is familiar today" in portrait and fashion photography.
In the decades since, LaChapelle has become one of the most published photographers globally, and many of his works have become iconic archetypes of America in the twenty-first century. Featuring over eighty prints, drawings, and videos across the NCMA's two campuses, David LaChapelle: Picture Show (NCMA) and Dear Sonja, (NCMA Winston-Salem) honor the artist's journey over the past four decades. This section of the artist's retrospective surveys many of his iconic, staged tableau works and interpretive series, including Deluge and Jesus Is My Homeboy.
David LaChapelle: Dear Sonja, is co-curated by David LaChapelle Studio and Maya Brooks, and organized by the North Carolina Museum of Art. This exhibition is made possible, in part, by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources; the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation, Inc.; and the William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment for Educational Exhibitions. Research for this exhibition was made possible by Ann and Jim Goodnight/The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fund for Curatorial and Conservation Research and Travel.
NCMA Winston-Salem would like to thank our Sponsors:
Workplace Options
Alan and Ben King