David LaChapelle: Dear Sonja,

Feb 27, 2025 – Jul 19, 2025

Overview

Retrospective Exhibition Spans Four Decades of the Artist’s Career

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.

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 seventeen 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.

We Belong Here: The Gutierrez Collection

Oct 23, 2025 – Dec 27, 2025

Overview

Works by More Than 40 International Artists Explore Identity, Social Change, and Pop Culture

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We Belong Here: The Gutierrez Collection is the first public exhibition of a collection of contemporary art built over the past decade by North Carolina–based collectors Onay Gutierrez and Jeff Childers. In their words, “The Gutierrez Collection aims to create a space where art becomes a platform for dialogue and understanding across a broad spectrum of identities and perspectives.”

We Belong Here features over 40 works created in the 21st century by over 40 international contemporary artists working in a broad range of media, engaged with current social, political, cultural, and personal issues. Artists include Anthony Akinbola, Saif Azzuz, Monica Kim Garza, Jeffrey Gibson, Hayv Kahraman, Beverly McIver, Zanele Muholi, Angel Otero, Deborah Roberts, Tavares Strachan, Mickalene Thomas, and Kehinde Wiley, among many others.

Gutierrez and Childers, who began their collection in 2015, describe their collecting philosophy as “revolving around the contemporary cultural landscape of their time through a cross section of artistic voices primarily from underrepresented communities.” As collectors, they prioritize artists who deviate from traditional or expected approaches to their medium, and who employ unique techniques to convey specific narratives. Their collection reflects contemporary ideas around mental health; LGBTQ rights; Latin/Latinx, African, and African Diasporic identities; as well as broader explorations of activism, protest, and civil disobedience.

This exhibition is made possible through the support of Onay Gutierrez and Jeffrey Childers and is co-organized with the Cameron Art Museum/CAM in Wilmington, NC. On view at CAM: April 23–September 7, 2025; on view at the NCMA Winston-Salem October 23–December 27, 2025.

NCMA Winston-Salem would like to thank our Sponsors:
Blanco Tackabery, Attorneys & Counsellors at Law
Onay Gutierrez and Jeffrey Childers

Exhibition Press

” We Belong Here is a wild show. It’s all over the place, but it never veers from its message of inclusivity, acceptance, and belonging. This is the stated aim of the Gutierrez Collection itself, but I wonder too if Gutierrez and Childers themselves also embody a version of “we belong here.” That collectors like them belong here—in the South, in North Carolina, in the art world. That art collectors who have a mission beyond financial investment belong here.” – Sommer Browning for Burnaway

Brandon Sadler: The Path of Totality

Jul 10, 2025 – Dec 27, 2025

Overview

Storytelling, Ink-Painting, and East Asian Art Forms Build New Worlds

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The Path of Totality is an ongoing episodic narrative series made up of figurative and calligraphic works that reflect Sadler’s diverse passion for storytelling, ink painting, and East Asian art forms. By adapting shufa, the art of Chinese brush character writing, he transforms the gallery into an immersive journey of mastering a medium through the Three Perfections: poetry, painting, and calligraphy.

Inspired by Sadler’s passion for world-building that combines calligraphy with figurative painting, The Path of Totality explores a mythical universe inhabited by beings who can cultivate cosmic energy and create realities through written language. With several newly created paintings by the artist, Chapter One – Bathed in Shadow specifically investigates the concept of supreme love, an all-encompassing and ever-expanding force that permeates everything beyond space and time.

Brandon Sadler: The Path of Totality is curated by 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.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Brandon Sadler is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) with a BFA in Illustration. Sadler is renowned for his calligraphy, public murals, and performance art. In addition to contributing to fine arts institutions, he has partnered with several major brands and commercial ventures, including a feature in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther film series.

Installation view of Brandon Sadler: The Path of Totality, photo by Bosha Novart.