Dapper Bruce Lafitte

Self-taught artist Dapper Bruce Lafitte’s color marker drawings celebrate his hometown of New Orleans and illuminate the painful history of the Southern United States. The artist, formerly Bruce Davenport, Jr., grew up in the Lafitte housing projects in New Orleans’s Sixth Ward and gravitated to art when Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005. His early, large-scale works depict sweeping panoramas of the city’s marching bands and Mardi Gras festivities. His personal and family heroes, such as the boxers Mike Tyson and Joe Louis, also feature prominently. Since 2015, Lafitte has taken on subjects related to ongoing racial injustice, such as white supremacist imagery, police violence, and portraits of incarcerated individuals. He regularly adds textual commentary to his works by turns biting and funny. Lafitte received a 2009 Joan Mitchell Foundation Award. Widely exhibited, his work was included in the Prospect.2 Biennial in 2012 and in a 2016 solo show at Atlanta Contemporary.