The title Earth Laughs in Flowers comes from the poem “Hamatreya” (1846) by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), in which flowers articulate nature’s ridicule and contempt for human arrogance in the pretense to dominion over earth.

Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds:
And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough.
Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys
Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;
Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet,
Clear of the grave.”

The titles of the works refer to the cycles of the seasons and of life: Springtime, Late Summer, Early Fall, Deathless Winter, and Concerning the Soul. In typical memento mori fashion, the works invite us in, beg our self-reflection, and remind us to enjoy life before it’s over.

Please join us for an artist talk with David LaChapelle
At the WeWork Lounge in SoHo - Friday, Feb. 24th at 6:30pm
Tickets will be $10 at the door - first come, first serve

WeWork - SoHo/Nolita
154 Grand St. (at Lafayette)
New York, NY 10013

Photographer David LaChapelle, most famous for his striking and surreal celebrity images, is now exhibiting a stunning collection of ten large-scale photographs ‘The Earth Laughs in Flowers’ in Dover Street, London. Bazaar speaks to the creator of these meticulous still lives about sexuality in springtime and why he’s now happier than ever before.

American Friends of the Telaviv Museum (AFTAM) Gala 2012

Honoring Artist of the Year: David LaChapelle
Patrons of the Arts: The late Anton Roland and Susan Roland, accepted
by Amy and George Roland

Arrivano freschi freschi da Los Angeles, saturi di colore e di dettagli - protesi, sigarette, flebo e carta igienica - i fiori con cui David LaChapelle definisce la sua sterzata. Dalle star allo stare con se stesso, dalla California più sfrenata alla quiete delle isole Hawaii, dove il fotografo più famoso al mondo, già associato a celebrities ed eccessi quantomeno scenografici, si rifugia appena può. Per esempio ora, prima di affrontare il debutto dei suoi bouquet con un tour in Europa. Dieci immagini, stampate maxi, quasi due metri d’altezza, tre le edizioni, tridimensionale l’effetto ottico, tripla la presentazione: Londra/Milano/Saint Moritz, a due giorni di distanza una dall’altra. Si parte il 13 febbraio in Dover street, galleria Robilant+Voena, per finire al Dracula Club, Saint Moritz, nella notte di venerdì 17, il 15 tocca all’Italia, sede milanese della stessa galleria. Intanto, l’artista è in mezzo alla giungla. E’ lì che lo raggiungiamo, nella sua casa hawaiana immersa nel silenzio, unica compagnia l’eco della cornetta.

David LaChapelle was asked by Kurt Mutchler, the Executive Editor of Photography for National Geographic Magazine, to be the keynote presenter at this year’s National Geographic Photography Seminar. LaChapelle closed the seminar with a presentation of his photo entitled “The Rape of Africa,” which was inspired by the January 2009 Geographic story “The Real Price of Gold” about the environmental and human costs of gold mining in Africa.

National Geographic Magazine

The focus of RAY 2012 is the main exhibition Making History. It is on view from April 20th to July 8th, 2012, in the spaces of the Frankfurter Kunstverein, the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main, and the MMK Zollamt, as well as in two public spaces. Making History highlights artistic reflection of public images. The exhibition shows different artists who concentrate on how reality is presented in media images. The artists are not creating history rather, their works reveal different perspectives on historical events. The works on view can be understood as extended forms for depicting history and hence as subjective variations on history painting. Making History is not strictly limited to the medium of still photography but also includes video and film. The works of about forty renowned artists, including Viktoria Binschtok, Thomas Demand, David LaChapelle, Omer Fast, Alfredo Jaar, Barbara Klemm and Gustav Metzger, as well as numerous new discoveries, reveal a broad spectrum of artistic approaches to public images.

The exhibition " The Earth Laughs in Flowers" will be shown in the Protestant Church, Reformierte Dorkirche, at St. Moritz in February for the St. Moritz Art Masters 5th jubilee in 2012.

Date: February 11 - 28, 2012
Via Maistra 18, 7500 St. Moritz

More Information:
St. Moritz Art Masters

National Geographic Magazine Photography Seminar 2012

Featuring: David LaChapelle with Robert Draper, plus Kitra Cahana, Gillian Laub, Cirenaica Moreira, Paolo Pellegrin with Anthony Bannon, Robin Schwartz, and Anthony Suau of Facing Change.

Robilant + Voena is pleased to present David LaChapelle's solo exhibition "Earth Laughs in Flowers," opening in London on February 14, 2012.

February 14 - March 24, 2012

Robilant + Voena
38 Dover Street, London, W1S 4NL
Phone: 020 7409 1540

Robilant + Voena

The dayʼs final presentation was eagerly awaited. David Lachapelle! Everyone was expecting slightly pretentious extravagance. We were going to show him, the King of Photoshop, what a “real” photo was. Every one was nicely surprised. Lachapelle was very much himself. Humble, funny, immensely cultivated, he shocked everyone! At the end of his interview, he showed us the making of his Pieta. When spectators realized there was NO photo manipulation involved, he triumphed!"

Robilant + Voena is pleased to be continuing its association with David LaChapelle, started in 2008, to bring this exciting and unique exhibition "Earth Laughs in Flowers," to Milan audiences.

R + V, ITALY
VIA FONTANA 16 20122, MILAN
TEL: +39 02 805 6179, FAX +39 02 805 5577

Robilant + Voena

Fred Torres Collaborations is proud to present an exhibition with artist, David LaChapelle featuring a new series of still lifes entitled, "Earth Laughs in Flowers."

Opening Reception Thursday February 23 from 6-8pm

Exhibition on view February 23rd through March 24th, 2012. Open to the public, Monday through Saturday from 10am to 6pm. Student groups always welcome.

527 W 29th Street, 3FL, New York NY, 10001
PH: 212-244-5074

Fred Torres Collaborations

Once again, LaChapelle seems to be predicting the near future in his work. His images suddenly gain in relevance, transfiguring generic symbolism into direct references to contemporary reality. LaChapelle’s last extensive cycle to date is Earth Laughs in Flowers, a series of photographs created in the years 2008-2011. Floral still life images once more provide a reference to an inspiration from the history of art, in this instance the 17th century Dutch masters. The title of the cycle is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem Hamatreya. Various objects are inserted in the painterly composition of the still life images, symbolizing and simultaneously updating the Baroque topos of the vanitas.

Opening Ceremony at 7pm on December 6, 2011

Museum Address:
Alšovo nábřeží 12, 110 01 Prague 1, Czech Republic
Phone: +420 227 059 205

Galerie Rudolfinum

This retrospective of David LaChapelle’s work will provide a comprehensive view of his unique and daring style of the past twenty years. Alongside familiar subversive photographs originally commissioned for fashion and celebrity editorials, the show explores LaChapelle's personal projects, created recently as part of his artistic and critical expression.

Seoul Arts Center Hangaram Design Museum

‘Burning Down the House’, a portrait by David LaChapelle of the late Alexander McQueen and his ‘muse’ Isabella Blow has been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. This is the first portrait by LaChapelle to enter the Gallery’s Collection and will be exhibited in the United Kingdom for the first time from Friday October 14th, 2011.

Museum Address: Saint Martin's Place City of London WC2H 0HE United Kingdom

Museum Hours: Open Daily 10am-6pm

National Portrait Gallery

Museum Address: Edificio Histórico Rafael M. de Labra Ave., Juan Ponce de León, esquina Ave. Roberto H. Todd, Parada 18 Santurce, Puerto Rico Phone: 787-977-4030

Museum Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10-4pm, Sunday, Noon-4pm

Museo Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico

An Italian genius and a universal legend. The famous Autoritratto is for the first time on display in a great exhibition, together with the works of artists that, in the course of centuries, took their inspiration from the genius of Leonardo.

Museum Address: Piazza della Repubblica 4, 10078 La Venaria Reale (Torino), Italia

(+39) 011-499-2333

Museum Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 9-6pm, Saturday-Sunday, 9-8pm

La Venaria Reale Exhibition

“Contemporary culture pre-disposes us to associate the figure in photography through the lens of pornography and commodity culture via the Internet and printed material. We are surrounded by women and men in advertisements, luring our eyes and wallets. In this exhibition, I seek a new visual renaissance; a re-imagining of the human form and its relationship to the divine. My installation at the Lever House highlights the nude body's redemptive and illuminating potential. In the context of contemporary photography, the proposed images function as hybrid between craft and traditional photographic image. This highlights the emancipation of the figure-freeing the human form from the bondage of photographic comodification and ultimately the cyclical connectedness between innocence and enlightenment."

Lever House Art Collection

A typical month in the life of legendary photographer David LaChapelle is a lot like the one that started the morning after this visit -- involving a flight to say, Prague or Istanbul, thence to Hong Kong or Guadalajara, with a stop in Paris or Miami en route home to LA, along the way opening one or more hugely anticipated new exhibitions, and/or shooting a gorgeous and expensive fashion story, and/or accepting invitations to the most fabulous parties you can think of.

Saint or Sinner?

The artist David LaChapelle had always wanted to take a portrait of Michael Jackson, and nearly did: several shoots were lined up and cancelled as Jackson grew increasingly wary. “Photographers weren’t nice to him,” says LaChapelle. “He got scared.”

The image forms part of a trilogy inspired by Mexican Saint cards. LaChapelle is convinced that Jackson was innocent of pedophilia. “I don’t think he was capable of hurting anyone,” he says. “I think there’s something really biblical about what happened. His lyrics are so naïve and so beautiful. It’s one of the most epic stories of our time, to go from such heights to such depths. He’s a modern-day martyr.”

"LIFE"
Cover by David LaChapelle

The long awaited autobiography of the guitarist, songwriter, singer, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Ladies and gentlemen: Keith Richards.
With the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the songs that roused the world, and he lived the original rock and roll life.

There are many reasons why the art world is wary of religion. Partly, it’s a question of history. For most of the 20th century, art aligned itself with progressive, rational secularity and radical subjectivity; the ideas that have fed into art come from modern philosophy, liberal or radical politics, sociology and pop culture rather than theology. It’s also a question of finance: the money that funds art doesn’t come from churches or religious orders like it did hundreds of years ago. And then there’s ethics.

EN COUVERTURE

Michael Jackson n'est pas mort, David LaChapelle l'immortalise.
« L'archange Michael », photographié en juillet 2009 par David LaChapelle.
David est représenté à l'international par Fred Torres.