John Malkovich has played his share of refined psychopaths on screen, though perhaps his most famous role to date was a meta-version of himself in the 1999 Spike Jonze movie “Being John Malkovich.”

Last year, the actor once again refracted his eccentric public persona through the camera lens in a project with photographer Sandro Miller. The resulting exhibition, “Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich: Homage to Photographic Masters,” which opened in Chicago in November, featured the star putting himself in a series of famous artistic portraits, including those of Andy Warhol, Alfred Hitchcock, Salvador Dali and Marilyn Monroe.

Now “Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich” is scheduled to run Feb. 12 to March 21 at the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles.

Miller first met Malkovich while the actor was working with the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Their collaboration pays homage to the works of photographers including Irving Penn, Dorothea Lange, Robert Mapplethorpe and Richard Avedon.


For each portrait in the exhibition, Malkovich stepped into the shoes of one of the celebrated photographic subjects. In one image, he assumes the persona of John Lennon in the famous Rolling Stone cover taken by Annie Leibovitz. In another, he plays twin girls in a photo by Diane Arbus.

One portrait depicts Malkovich as a crucified Jesus Christ in a replication of Andres Serrano’s controversial work featuring a crucifix submerged in urine.

Organizers of the exhibition said that Malkovich and Miller created the portraits over six 15-hour days in the photographer’s Chicago studio.

“Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich” is on view at the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago through Jan. 31.


Twitter: @DavidNgLAT

[Updated]: A previous version of this story featured a title for the exhibition provided by a press release that was erroneous.