David LaChapelle: The Rape of Africa

David LaChapelle is one of the most well-known and controversial photographers working today, who recently retired from a career in fashion and pop-culture publishing spanning more than 20 years, in order to bring his skills to bear full time on his personal fine art. His much-anticipated new work, The Rape of Africa, a year-long labor of passion and persistence, casts a regal Naomi Campbell in the role of Venus from the Botticelli masterpiece Venus and Mars, in a monumental tableaux that seduces viewers with sexy bling, only to shock them with the environmental devastation and violent conflicts that pervade African mining. Exhibited in LA alongside a compendium of process renderings, collages, and drawings, this sensational work infuses LaChapelle's unapologetic opulence with profound pangs of conscience.

– Shana Nys Dambrot