Lafitte’s work is a celebration of black culture. From Mardi Gras parades to marching bands, each painting represents a historic coming together – an exemplification of the kind of teamwork it takes to overcome any hell or high water that may come one's way.
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 DonneĢ, 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.