The expansive presentation, titled “Vanishing Act,” curated by VISU Contemporary gallery owner Bruce Halpryn, will be on display from November 29, 2025, through January 31, 2026, and will feature over 30 significant photographs from the artist’s career, including the world premiere of 9 new works.
The free and public grand opening with David LaChapelle will be held on Friday, December 5, 2025, from 6-9 p.m., with additional press preview opportunities available earlier in the week.
The still image stops time.
— David LaChapelle
LaChapelle, whose career spans over four decades, continues to confront the paradoxes of beauty and decay, artifice and authenticity, with a unique visual language that merges theatricality, spirituality and social critique. “Vanishing Act” gathers landmark works from across his career alongside new and never-before-seen pieces that reflect the deepening urgency of his practice today.
Highlights of the exhibition include the world premiere of the following works:
Will the World End in Fire, Will the World End in Ice (2025)
Over the past three decades, LaChapelle has explored the tension between nature and civilization through meticulously staged still-life photography. In series like Seismic Shift (2012) and Aristocracy (2014), he depicted symbols of wealth, flooded museums and deserted private jets, undone by environmental or societal collapse. This narrative evolved in Gas (2014), where overgrown forests reclaim abandoned fuel stations, and deepened with Spree (2019-2020), a haunting image of a cruise ship frozen in an arctic seascape. Inspired by Shackleton’s doomed expedition and the unchecked growth of the cruise industry, Spree eerily mirrored the onset of the global pandemic, completed just days before lockdowns and no-sail orders took effect. In 2025, LaChapelle revisits this world in Will the World End in Fire, Will the World End in Ice, capturing the same vessel now illuminated by a haunting sun.
Negative Currency (1990-2025)
In this ongoing series, LaChapelle transforms global banknotes into glowing, negative icons that appear more like precious gems than instruments of commerce. Originally inspired by Andy Warhol’s One Dollar Bill (1962), The newest additions feature currencies from Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea. These luminous new works highlight the tension between value and image, reminding us that societies, like individuals, must continually adapt in order to survive and to reimagine value beyond the purely economic.
Other works on display include:
Tower of Babel (2024)
Drawing from the biblical myth of hubris and disconnection, Tower of Babel presents a fragile human monument set against a digitally projected Los Angeles skyline. Constructed from handmade sets, and populated by a diverse cast of figures, the work critiques the noise and fragmentation of modern digital culture. LaChapelle describes it as “a scene where everyone is speaking, but no one is listening.”
Sacred Figures Reimagined
Spirituality runs as a central thread throughout the exhibition, embodied in intimate and reverent tableaus like Annunciation (2019), Our Lady of the Flowers (2018), and The Sorrows (2021). In these works, LaChapelle reinterprets traditional Christian iconography through a contemporary lens.
A selection of LaChapelle’s classic and seminal works will also be on view, including:
Earth Laughs in Flowers (2008-2011) – Still life photographs inspired by Dutch Vanitas, reflecting on mortality and material culture.
Gas and Land SCAPE (2012-2014) – Surreal, futurescapes gas stations and oil refineries reclaimed by nature.
Biombos (1986-2017) – Stained glass panels of hand-painted negatives reflect on faith, loss and transcendence.
For Men Will Be Lovers of Self & The Sorrows (2021) – A diptych of contemporary parables addressing vanity, vulnerability and the search for grace.
“Vanishing Act” arrives at a moment of global uncertainty and cultural introspection. With his singular ability to create narratives that blend theatricality and intimacy, LaChapelle presents a visual archive of a world in flux, where beauty meets crisis, and spirituality finds space within the chaos. The exhibition reflects on what we’ve built, what has disappeared, and what remains sacred.
“For a young gallery in Miami Beach to be presenting new, world-premiere works by David LaChapelle is nothing short of extraordinary,” said Bruce Halpryn, owner and curator of VISU Contemporary. “Our mission has always been to showcase cutting-edge, thought-provoking art that resonates with today’s cultural pulse. To be one of two galleries representing LaChapelle’s work in the Americas is a tremendous honor, and speaks to Miami’s growing stature as an art world capital.”
The Artist – David LaChapelle
davidlachapelle.com | @david_lachapelle
David LaChapelle is an American photographer and filmmaker known for his iconic portraits, surrealist tableaux, and visionary fine art photography. LaChapelle was born in Connecticut in 1963 and attended high school at North Carolina School of The Arts. Originally enrolled as a painter, he developed an analogue technique by hand-painting his own negatives to achieve a sublime spectrum of color before processing his film. At age seventeen, LaChapelle moved to New York City. Following his first photography show at Gallery 303, 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. His staged tableau, portrait and still life works challenged devices of traditional photography and his work quickly gained international interest. By 1997, The New York Times predicted, “LaChapelle is certain to influence the work of a new generation…in the same way that Mr. Avedon pioneered so much of what is familiar today.”
In the decades since, LaChapelle has become one of the most published photographers throughout the world with an anthology of books including LaChapelle Land (1996), Hotel LaChapelle (1999), Heaven to Hell (2006), Lost & Found, and Good News (2017). Simultaneously, his work has expanded into music video, film and stage projects. His 2005 feature film Rize was released theatrically in 17 countries. Many of his still and film works have become iconic archetypes of America in the 21st Century.
LaChapelle has photographed some of the most recognizable figures in film, music, art, politics and sports, including Aaliyah, Alicia Keys, Amy Winehouse, Andy Warhol, Angeline Jolie, Anna Kournikova, Anna Nicole Smith, Avicii, Britney Spears, Canelo Álvarez, Charli XCX, Cher, Christina Aguilera, Courtney Love, David Beckham, David Bowie, David Byrne, David Hockney, Dennis Hopper, Diana Damrau, Doja Cat, Dolly Parton, Drew Barrymore, Dua Lipa, Eartha Kitt, Elizabeth Taylor, Elton John, Eminem, Faye Dunaway, Giselle, Gloria Estefan, Hillary Clinton,Ice Spice, Jackie Chan, Janet Jackson, Jeff Koons, Julian Assange, Kanye West, Kehinde Wiley, Keke Palmer, Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, Lance Armstrong, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lil’ Kim, Liza Minnelli, Lizzo, Madonna, Marc Anthony, Mariah Carey, Marilyn Manson, Mary J. Blige, Michael Jackson, Miley Cyrus, Muhammed Ali, Naomi Campbell, Nicki Minaj, Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton, Ricky Martin, Rita Ora, Sade, Sabrina Carpenter, Serena Williams, Snoop Dogg, Sofia Coppola, Stevie Nicks, The Weeknd, Travis Scott, Tupac Shakur, Uma Thurman, Whitney Houston and many others.
In the fall of 2023, LaChapelle was honored with the “Lorenzo il Magnifico” Lifetime Achievement Award at the XIV Florence Biennale. Over the past 40 years, LaChapelle has exhibited internationally in galleries and museums including the National Portrait Gallery (London), Musee de Monnaie (Paris), Barbican Centre (London), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Musee D’Orsay (Paris), Groninger Museum (The Netherlands), Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome), Palazzo Reale (Milano), National Portrait Gallery (Washington D.C.), Casa dei Tre Oci (Venice), La Venaria Reale (Turin), MUDEC (Milan), Fotografiska (New York), Salone Degli Incanti (Trieste) and the North Carolina Museum of Art.
VISU Contemporary
visugallery.com | @visu.gallery
Established in 2022, VISU Contemporary’s success is a testament to Miami’s flourishing position in the global art market. Located one block from the Miami Beach Convention Center (home to Art Basel) and near The Bass Museum, VISU Contemporary seeks to contribute to the art history conversation by presenting provocative and inclusive exhibitions, projects, installations, collaborations and performances.
