DAPPER BRUCE LAFITTE
STUCK INSIDE
Artwork by Dapper Bruce Lafitte
June 1 - June 30, online exhibition
FIERMAN presents its second online exhibition, STUCK INSIDE: Artwork by Dapper Bruce Lafitte. The solo is comprised of 24 new small-scale drawings made by Dapper Bruce Lafitte during the COVID lockdown at home in New Orleans, Louisiana. The drawings on view vacillate between savage depictions of President Donald Trump and scenes of New Orleans urban culture, in this case Mardi Gras celebrations and jazz funerals, both of which assume a tragic edge in light of the devastation to the city’s population due to the COVID-19 outbreak largely caused by the tourist boom during the Mardi Gras holiday.
The drawings present vividly colored portraits of Mardi Gras Indians, a cultural staple of New Orleans parade culture and multiracial crowds drawn in full color carrying white coffins, with titles ranging from “Anti Lie,” “Pass It On,” “Poor Folks,” and “Amerikkka.” In contrast, “Thump”, as Donald Trump is renamed in the Dapper’s signature lexicon, appears at his bully pulpit, starkly un-colored, spouting his media hate speech. In stark vignettes Klansmen abut white police officers pointing guns at African-Americans, brutal depictions of ever-mounting racist violence. As always, Dapper Bruce Lafitte, stuck inside, remains a keen observer of the cultural realities both in New Orleans and in the US at large.
In response to the murder of George Floyd, 10% of the proceeds from the exhibition will be donated to the New Orleans Safety and Freedom Fund ((https://donorbox.org/safety-freedom-fund-eoy) an advocacy campaign based in New Orleans that puts donations toward drug testing fees, jail release fees, fines, etc. for low-income individuals who cannot otherwise afford it.
