An Australian exclusive exhibition of images by Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) will be on display at the 2025 Ballarat International Foto Biennale between 23 August and 19 September.
Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith, 1975, one of the now iconic photographs of rock n’ roll musician, artist and poet Patti Smith that will be on display. © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.
Curated by Edward Enninful OBE, Ghanaian-born British editor and stylist who was Editor in Chief of British Vogue and European editorial director for Conde Nast magazines, the ENNINFUL x MAPPLETHORPE exhibition showcases 46 photographs displayed in pairs. This method of displaying them highlights Mapplethorpe’s way of using his work to show tensions between light and dark, celebrity and underground, sacred and profane, ripple and form. The exhibition will also include a series of self-portraits taken by Mapplethorpe over a year and showing aspects of the parts of his character where he was self-confident: dressed like a bad boy redolent of James Dean or Marlon Brando, or wearing full makeup in a fur coat with his full painted lips front and centre.
Australians will only be able to see these images at 2025 Ballarat International Foto Biennale, where they will be on display at the Post Office Gallery, Ballarat. Tickets will go on sale in July. Click here for more information.
