Early works by Christopher Makos featured in new solo exhibition at Daniel Cooney Fine Art

From April 5 to May 24, 2025, Daniel Cooney Fine Art will present PARTY, the third solo exhibition by Christopher Makos, and the first to be held by the gallery in Santa Fe. The exhibition includes over 40 vintage photographs by the artist, primarily dating from the earlier part of his career. All works featured are original prints and have not been previously exhibited.

The opening reception is scheduled for Saturday, April 5, from 3:00 to 5:00 PM. Christopher Makos will attend the event, and music will be provided by DJ Oona. The event is free and open to the public.

The exhibition includes numerous portraits taken by Makos between the 1970s and 1980s, during his time working within the circle surrounding Andy Warhol. From 1976 to 1986, Makos was closely associated with Warhol’s studio, the Factory, and his position in that environment enabled him to photograph numerous figures from the era’s cultural underground and mainstream entertainment. Individuals featured in the images include Divine, Steven Tyler, Debbie Harry, Peter Berlin, Richard Gallo, and Georgia O’Keeffe, among others.

In addition to portraits of public figures, the exhibition includes a number of self-portraits. Several of these images show the artist nude or partially nude, including one titled Self-Portrait I, 1970s, which depicts Makos in a mirrored hotel room from the chest down. Other works include multiple-contact prints and darkroom experiments featuring images of drag performers, bodybuilders, and street figures.

One item on display is the complete contact sheet from the Andy in Drag session, a series produced by Makos that depicts Andy Warhol wearing a wig and white sheet. The sheet includes annotations and marks added by the photographer during the selection process.

Christopher Makos, born in 1948 in Lowell, Massachusetts, is an American photographer whose work often intersects with themes of identity, celebrity, and the cultural underground. After studying architecture in Paris, he began his career as a photographer in the early 1970s. Makos became closely associated with Andy Warhol, and worked with him on numerous photographic and publishing projects. He also contributed to Interview Magazine, a publication founded by Warhol in 1969.

Makos has authored 18 photography books, including White Trash (1977), Warhol/Makos In Context (2007), Christopher Makos Polaroids (2009), and Everything: The Black and White Monograph (2014). His work has been featured in magazines such as Interview, Rolling Stone, House & Garden, Connoisseur, New York Magazine, Esquire, Genre, and People.

Photographs by Makos have been included in exhibitions at institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, the Tate Modern, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery, and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

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