Dapper Bruce Lafitte (b. 1972 New Orleans) is a self-trained artist who began making and showing work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to commemorate the then-decimated street culture of parades and marching bands of New Orleans..
He has exhibited locally, nationally and internationally, notably at the Prospect Biennial, New Orleans, and in solo shows at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum, Biloxi, MS; M+B Gallery, Los Angeles; Fierman Gallery, New York; Gryder Gallery, New Orleans; Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, and Vacant Gallery, Tokyo. Lafitte’s work has been in group shows and fairs at the Brodsky Center, New York; Dieu Donné, New York; Tatjana Pieters, Belgium; and the Outsider Art Fair, Paris. Lafitte’s next solo exhibition, The
Game is Mine, will be at Alchemy Gallery starting March 7.
Lafitte’s work is held in the permanent collections of the New Orleans Museum of Art, and has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine and Victory Journal. In 2009, he was a recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation artist award and was a mentee by renowned curator and tastemaker Diego Cortez prior to his passing in 2021.
EXHIBITIONS
Select solo exhibitions:
2024 The Game is Mine, Alchemy Gallery, New York
2022 New Orleans/New Wave: A Celebration of the Life of Diego Cortez, Gryder Gallery, New Orleans
2021 I SEE YOU LOOKIN’, Gryder Gallery, New Orleans
2020 Dapper Bruce Lafitte: Duck Sauce, M+B, Los Angeles
2020 Stuck Inside: Artwork by Dapper Bruce Lafitte, Fierman Gallery, New York
2019 45 Don’t Have Love For Me, Fierman Gallery, NY
2019 Artwork By Dapper Bruce Lafitte, A NOLA Icon, M+B, Los Angeles
Select group exhibitions:
2023 Fall for Art: Affordable Collections, Brodsky Center, PA
2022 Neon Nouveau, Gryder Gallery, New Orleans
2021 The Effect of Color, Gryder Gallery, New Orleans
2020 Dieu Donné Holiday Exhibition, Dieu Donné, New York
2018 Paper Works, Tatjana Pieters, Belgium
2018 LUC DELEU & T.O.P. OFFICE AND DAPPER BRUCE LAFITTE, Tatjana Pieters, Belgium
PRESS
Atlanta Magazine, Dapper Bruce Lafitte’s
folk art honors a New Orleans tradition
Chicago Gallery News, Dapper Bruce Lafitte: Kingpin of the Antpin
The New Yorker, Dapper Bruce Lafitte
Harper’s Magazine, Exodus
Harper’s Magazine, Bria Monet Harper’s Magazine, The Jive Ass Mayor Got 10 Years
Victory Journal, Bruce Davenport Jr: The Game Is Mine