This month we head to the Royal Scottish Academy for Catherine Opie: To be Seen where we will be joined by Chief Curator, Imogen Gibbon. Curated in collaboration with the artist and touring to Edinburgh from the National Portrait Gallery in London, Catherine Opie: To Be Seen is the first major museum exhibition of Opie’s work to be shown in the UK and her first ever solo exhibition in Scotland.
Catherine Opie makes photographs that question the who, how and why of representation. Her photographs make visible Queer communities, mentors and collaborators, children, surfers, high school footballers, political crowds and Opie herself, through self-portraiture. Opie has said about her work: ‘If you can walk away having a little better understanding about being human, that’s what I care about the most.’
The exhibition features nearly 80 portraits by Opie shown alongside a selection of portraits from Scotland’s national collection. Highlights include her first major work, Being and Having (1991), her portraits of LGBTQ+ friends inspired by court painter Hans Holbein, through to her Baroque-like portraits of artists.
In her photography, Opie questions representations of home, intimacy and family and explores politics, identity and power structures. She creates new narratives, challenging viewers to think about the figures most portrayed in art and those who go unseen.
