If the tortured, sacrilegious artist Francis Bacon had been a photographer instead of a painter, his photos would probably look a lot like Paul Rowland‘s new work. Which is to say, popes as devils, gobs of spilled blood and an overall, overpowering sense of doom and damnation. For his second solo show at the former DIA space in Chelsea, Rowland—founder of Women/Supreme model agencies and champion of unconventional looks—will go even further to the dark side with The Transformation of Enrique Miron as El Diablo. The enormous-scale photographs feature model Enrique Miron in the role of Satan as he falls from grace into a hell of his own making. Of course no one can come close to Bacon’s degree of depravity and debauchery, but considering he’s been called a “bilious ogre,” “a sacred monster” and “a drunken, faded sodomite swaying nocturnally through the lowest dives and gambling dens of Soho,” that’s probably a good thing.

April 30 – May 2
548 West 22nd Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10011
Opening reception: Thursday, April 29, 6-9 pm