Deodato Arte presents world premiere of new work by David LaChapelle

Deodato Arte presents the world premiere of The Second Coming (2025), the new monumental work by David LaChapelle, created with the support of the gallery. The project is part of the artist’s long and articulate investigation of spiritual and biblical themes, focusing in this new work on the Second Coming, or Judgment Day. It will be exhibited simultaneously at theOrlando Museum of Art starting Jan. 31, and in Deodato Arte’s spaces in Milan (via Santa Marta 6, Feb. 2-7) and Rome (via Giulia 122, Feb. 11-21).

Inspired by Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, LaChapelle wanted to build an impressive photographic tableau in which the figures of Jesus and Mary take a central role, both narrative and symbolic. The circular composition, monumental proportions and calibrated use of color accompany the viewer’s gaze within a vision suspended between sacred and contemporary dimensions. Shot from above, the scene seems to defy gravity, recalling Renaissance visual solutions reinterpreted through a current photographic language.

While drawing on the Christian iconographic tradition, The Second Coming does not address a specific faith. The work aims to propose a universal reflection on the themes of judgment, moral responsibility and the possibility of redemption, inviting a moment of introspection and awareness. The choice to leave visible elements of the studio, such as the floor, the edges of the set, and traces of previous workings, is also meant to emphasize the artist’s desire to claim the authentically photographic nature of the image, in contrast to the widespread artificiality of contemporary digital imagery.

The project grew out of a collaboration with gallery owner Deodato Salafia, founder of Deodato Arte, whose theological training encouraged and accompanied LaChapelle’s quest toward the ambitious goal of “photographing the impossible.” “After years of theological study, I continue to search for a language capable of uniting form and spirit. With The Second Coming, David LaChapelle makes a rare gesture: he brings the sacred into the present without reducing it to aesthetics. To be at his side in this project has been a privilege,” said the gallerist.

“I have been contemplating this new production for several years, as it is an image that has really moved me since the first time I saw it in the Sistine Chapel,” explained David LaChapelle. “We are living in unprecedented times and I wanted to imagine what The Second Coming would look like today. This is a photograph that pays homage to Michelangelo’s masterpiece but also incorporates my photographic techniques. The original tableau has many figures involved. I simplified the composition and photographed it from above. The figures are placed at various heights with Jesus closest to the camera, in the center, to emphasize his scale. Many of my photographs have a painterly quality and I wanted this to really feel like a photograph - because it is. Each moment existed in real time, in the camera. This is not a composition but the original shot from my camera.”

Deodato Arte presents world premiere of new work by David LaChapelle

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