Catherine Opie

Overview
© Catherine Opie. Courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Thomas Dane Gallery
© Catherine Opie. Courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Thomas Dane Gallery
Catherine Opie is an influential contemporary American photographer. Best known for her color portraits, Opie’s work explores the strata of our society by focusing on particular groups such as high school football players, S&M leather participants, and LGBT communities.
Often politically charged, her photographs feature a central figure occupying a flattened space, highlighting her subject’s inner life through the removal of external detail. Throughout her practice, Opie investigates queer culture and personal history, creating work that is often autobiographical and informed by her experiences as a lesbian woman. In describing her iconic self-portrait, in which she appears bloodied and with the word ‘pervert’ carved into her chest, she explained, “I made the piece out of a reaction to all of the sudden gays and lesbians’ bringing on the ‘normal’ dialogue to us,” and wanted to “push the boundaries a little bit here about what you guys think normal is.” Still living and working on the west coast, Opie attended the San Francisco Art Institute and the California Institute of the Arts for her bachelor's and master's degrees, respectively. Born in Sandusky, OH in 1961, she has been the recipient of tremendous critical acclaim, including retrospectives at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2008 and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston in 2011.
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Guts Exhibitions 
Press
CV
© Catherine Opie. Courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Thomas Dane Gallery
© Catherine Opie. Courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Thomas Dane Gallery

B. 1961 in Sandusky OH. Lives and works in Los Angeles CA

 

Education
1988 M.F.A., California Institute of the Arts

1985 B.F.A., San Francisco Art Institute

 

Solo Exhibitions

2023 Catherine Opie: Binding Ties, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Australia

2022 To What We Think We Remember, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, England

2022 Catherine Opie, The Current, Stowe VT

2020 Rhetorical Landscapes, Lehmann Maupin, New York NY

2020 Catherine Opie: The Modernist, Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg, Canada

2020 Rhetorical Landscapes, Regen Projects, Los Angeles CA

2019 Catherine Opie: The Outside-Inside, Installation for MOCACleveland, MOCA Cleveland, Cleveland OH

2018 Domestic, Houses & Landscapes: Selections from the wok of Catherine Opie, North Gallery, Princeton NJ

2018 The Human Landscape, Centro Internazionale di Fotografia, Palermo, Sicily, Italy

2018 The Moderninst, Regen Projects, Los Angeles CA

2017 Keeping an Eye on the World, Henie Onstad Art Center, Oslo, Norway

Portraits and Landscapes, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, England

2017 700 Nimes Road, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale FL

2016 Catherine Opie: O, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles CA

2016 Catherine Opie: Portraits, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles CA
2016 700 Nimes Road and Portraits and Landscapes, Lehmann Maupin, New York NY
2016 700 Nimes Road, MOCA Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles CA [travelled to: University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor MI; George Eastman Museum, Rochester NY; NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale

2015 Catherine Opie: Portraits and Landscapes, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus OH

2014 The Gang: Photographs by Catherine Opie, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England

2014 Only Miss the Sun when it Starts to Snow, Peder Lund, Oslo, Norway

2013 In and Around LA, Julius Shulman Institute, Los Angeles CA
2013 Catherine Opie, Regen Projects, Los Angeles CA

2012 Twelve Miles to the Horizon: Sunrises and Sunsets, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach CA
2012 BROADWAY BILLBOARD: Catherine Opie, Untitled (Stump Fire #4), Socrates Sculpture Park, New York NY
2012 Catherine Opie: High School Football, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York NY

2011 Catherine Opie, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
2011 Catherine Opie: New Zealand; Zero to Something, projectspace B431, Elam School of Fine Arts, New Zealand
2011 Catherine Opie: Empty and Full, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston MA
2011 Catherine Opie: Football Landscapes, Peder Lund, Oslo, Norway

2010 Catherine Opie, Portland Art Museum, Portland OR
2010 Catherine Opie: Figure and Landscape, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles CA

2010 Catherine Opie: High School Football Players, Sabine Knust Galerie Maximilian Verlag, Munich, Germany
2010 Venezia/ Venice, Studio Guenzani, Milan, Italy
2010 Catherine Opie: Twelve Miles to the Horizon, Regen Projects II, Los Angeles CA
2010 Catherine Opie: Girlfriends, Gladstone Gallery, New York NY

2008 Catherine Opie The Blue of Distance: Photographs from Alaska, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
2008 Catherine Opie: American Photographer, Guggenheim Museum, New York NY
2008 Catherine Opie, Regen Projects, Los Angeles CA

2006 1999 & In and Around Home, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro NC

2006 1999 & In and Around Home, Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland OH

2006 1999 & In and Around Home, The Orange County Museum of Art, Orange County CA

2006 1999 & In and Around Home, Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield CT
2006 Catherine Opie: Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago IL
2006 Catherine Opie: American Cities, Gladstone Gallery, New York NY

2004 Catherine Opie: Children, Studio Guenzani, Milan, Italy
2004 Catherine Opie: Surfers, Gorney Bravin + Lee, New York NY
2004 Catherine Opie: Surfers, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
2004 Catherine Opie: Surfers, Regen Projects, Los Angeles CA

2002 Catherine Opie: Icehouses, Studio Guenzani, Milan, Italy
2002 Catherine Opie: Icehouses, Regen Projects, Los Angeles CA
2002 Catherine Opie: Skyways and Icehouses, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN

2001 Wall Street, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England

2001 1999, Galeria Presenca, Porto, Portugal
2001 Wall Street 2000-2001, presented by Antik in cooperation with Gorney Bravin + Lee, New York NY

2000 Catherine Opie: In between here and there, curated by Rochelle Steiner, The Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis MO
2000 Altered States of America: Catherine Opie, The Photographers' Gallery, London, England [travelled to: the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL]
2000 Catherine Opie: Large Format Polaroids, Thread Waxing Space, New York NY

2000 New Polaroids, Thread Waxing Space, New York NY

2000 Catherine Opie, Artpace, San Antonio TX
2000 Works 1991-1997, Partobject Gallery, Carrboro NC
2000 Domestic, Gorney Bravin + Lee, New York NY

2000 Catherine Opie, Susan Inglett, New York NY

1999 Catherine Opie: A Survey, Woodstreet Galleries, Pittsburgh PA
Domestic, Regen Projects, Los Angeles CA

1998 Mini-Malls, Jay Gorney Modern Art, New York NY

1997 LA Freeways and Mini-Malls, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

1997 Houses and Landscapes, Ginza Art Space, Shiseido, Tokyo, Japan

1997 Portraits and Houses, Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Birmingham MI

1996 L.A. Houses and Landscapes, Regen Projects, Los Angeles CA
1996 Houses and L.A. Freeways, Jay Gorney Modern Art, New York NY
1996 L.A. Freeways, Feigen Gallery, Chicago IL

1995 Portraits, enterprise, New York NY
1995 Portraits, Parco, Tokyo, Japan
1995 Portraits, Galeria Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy
1995 Portraits and Freeways, Richard Foncke Galerie, Ghent, Belgium

1994 Portraits, Regen Projects, Los Angeles CA
1994 Portraits, Kiki Gallery, San Francisco CA
1994 L.A. Freeways, Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco CA

1991 Being and Having, 494 Gallery, New York NY

1990 A Long Way from Paris: Photographs from MacArthur Park, Metro Rail, and Their Surroundings, Beyond Baroque, Venice CA

1989 Master Plan, United States Post Office, Valencia CA
1989 Master Plan, Mills College, Oakland CA

 

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023 Saints and Sinners, Guts Gallery, London, England

2023 Ansel Adams in Our Time, de Young Museum, San Francisco CA

2023 Queer Love: Affection and Romance in Contemporary Art, Lehman College Art Gallery and La MaMa Galleria, New York NY

2023 Queer Ethos, University of Auckland Art Collection, Auckland, New Zealand 

2023 Picturing Fame: Hooray for Hollywood, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale FL

2023 When I Am Empty Please Dispose of Me Properly, Bric, New York NY

2023 Face to Face: Portraits of Artists by Tacita Dean, Brigitte Lacombe and Catherine Opie, International Center of Photography, New York NY

2023 CURRENTS, Lehmann Maupin, Palm Beach FL

2022 Queer Icons, Fotogalleriet, Oslo, Norway

2022 Warhol, Opie, Sherman, Klein, Polke, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebaek, Denmark

2022 What's Going On, Rubell Museum, Washington D.C.

2022 13 Women, Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa CA

2022 Grief and Pleasure, Odunpazarı Modern Museum, Eskişehir, Turkey

2022 Io, lei, l'altra. Ritratti e autoritratti fotografici di artiste, Magazzino delle Idee, Trieste, Italy

2021 Black American Portraits, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles CA

2021 Since Unveiling: Selected Acquisitions of a Decade, The Broad, Los Angeles CA

2021 Mother and Child, Friends Indeed Gallery, San Francisco CA

2021 In Focus: Protest, Getty Museum, Los Angeles CA

2021 Picturing Motherhood Now, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland OH

2021 No Face, No Case: Portraiture’s Breaking, Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, Portland OR

2021 Queer/Dialogue, Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell IA

2021 Any distance between us, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence RI

2021 Los Angeles (State of Mind), Palazzo Zevallos, Naples, Italy 

2021 Mother!, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark

2021 New Iconography: Artists Raising Children, The Landing Gallery, Los Angeles CA

2021 It’s Better to Be Mediocre, curated by LG Williams (online)

2020 i’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston MA

2020 Lehmann Maupin, Palm Beach FL

2020 House to House: Women, Politics, and Place, Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami FL

2020 Monoculture: A Recent History, Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp, Belgium 

2020 In Focus: Election Eve, The Getty Museum, Los Angeles CA

2020 Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond, Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs NY

2020 La Photographie à l'épreuve de l'abstraction, FRAC Normandie Rouen, Sotteville-lès- Rouen, France

2020 Photography’s Last Century: The Collection of Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY

2020 Duro Olowu: Seeing Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL

2020 Labor: Motherhood & Art in 2020, New Mexico State University Art Museum, Las Cruces NM

2020 Masculinities. Liberation through Photography, Barbican Centre, London, England [travelled to: Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany; LUMA Foundation, Arles, France; FOMU, Antwerp, Belgium]

2020 50 + 50: A Creative Century from Chouinard to CalArts, REDCAT, Los Angeles CA

2020 The Cindy Sherman Effect, Kunstforum Wien, Vienna, Austria

2019 Water After All, MCA Chicago, Chicago IL

2019 Ace: Art on Sports, Promise, and Selfhood, University Art Museum, Albany NY

2019 Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now, Guggenheim, New York NY

2019 Art After Stonewall, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York NY
2019 Tattoo: Storie Sulla Pelle, M9 Museum, Mestre, Venice
2019 Kiss My Genders, The Hayward Gallery, London, England

2019 Queer as I, Here Gallery, New York NY

2019 Highlights from the Sweet Briar Collection, Pannell Gallery, Sweet Briar VA

2018 One Day at a Time: Manny Farmer and Termite Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles CA

2018 Michael Jackson: On the Wall, National Portrait Gallery, London, England; travelling to: Grand Palais, Paris, France; Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany; Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland

2018 Opie, Sherman, Struth…Photography from the Louisiana Collection, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark

2018 American Landscape, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York NY

2018 New Acquisitions, Dalton Gallery, Agnes Scott College, Decatur GA

2018 Shape of Time, Kunsthorisch Museum, Vienna, Austria

2018 The Intersectional Self, The 8th Floor, New York NY

2018 Thomas Dane Gallery, Naples, Italy

2018 Monuments to Us, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

2018 Dress Matters, Tuscon Museum of Art, Tuscon AZ

2018 Blurred Horizons: Contemporary Landscapes, Real and Imagined, Art Projects International, New York NY

 

Public Collections

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo NY

Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara CA

Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham AL

The Broad, Los Angeles CA

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh PA

Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico

Collezione Patrizia e Augustino Re Rebaudengo Sandretto, Turin, Italy

Currier Museum of Art, Manchester NH

De Pont Museum Tilburg, Netherlands

J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles CA

Groninger Museum, Groninger, Netherlands

Guggenheim Museum, New York NY

Hall Art Foundation, Reading VT

Hammer Museum, Los Angeles CA

Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia

Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle WA

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston MA

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel

Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York NY

Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach CA

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles CA

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Saint Louis MO

Modern Art Museum Fort Worth, Fort Worth TX

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles CA

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL

Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami FL

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla CA

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston TX

Museum of Modern Art, New York NY

National Portrait Gallery, London, England

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

Nevada Museum of Art, Reno NV

New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans LA

NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale FL

Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach CA

Pérez Art Museum, Miami FL

Royal Academy of Arts, London, England

Rubell Museum, Miami FL

Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis MO

Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville FL

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco CA

Seattle Art Museum, Seattle WA

Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln NE

Si Shang Art Museum, Beijing, China

South London Gallery, London, England

The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York NY

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs NY

Tate, London, England

Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford CT

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England 

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY

Worcester Art Museum, Worcester MA

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven CT