Christopher Makos: LADY WARHOL - Altered Image

The Galerie Messine is pleased to present Lady Warhol – Altered Image, an iconic photographic series by Christopher Makos, a key figure of the 1980s New York art scene and close collaborator of Andy Warhol.

In 1981, the two artists secluded themselves in Makos’s studio for a two-day experimental portrait session, accompanied by a selection of wigs and makeup. The result: a striking series of black-and-white portraits in which Andy Warhol transforms into Lady Warhol, one of his most unsettling female alter egos. Through these powerful images, Makos explores notions of gender, transformation, and representation—echoing the artistic lineage of Marcel Duchamp’s Rrose Sélavy as photographed by Man Ray.

More than a testament to friendship and collaboration, Altered Image is a visual manifesto—both intimate and radical—on identity, appearance, and the shifting boundaries of contemporary photography. Warhol, who famously called Makos “the most modern photographer in America,” lends himself here to a mirrored performance where image becomes act, and the gaze becomes political.