Catherine Opie

Catherine Sue Opie (born 1961)[1] is an American fine-art photographer. She lives and works in West Adams, Los Angeles,[2] as a tenured professor of photography at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).[3][4]

Catherine Opie
Born1961
Sandusky, Ohio
NationalityAmerican
EducationSan Francisco Art Institute, California Institute of the Arts
Known forPortrait, landscape, and studio photography
Notable work
Being and Having (1991), Portraits (1993—1997), Domestic (1999)
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship
Websitewww.regenprojects.com/artists/catherine-opie

Opie studies the connections between mainstream and infrequent society. By specializing in portraiture, studio and landscape photography, she is able to create pieces relating to sexual identity. Through photography, Opie, documents the relationship between the individual and the space inhabited.

She is known for her portraits exploring the Los Angeles leather-dyke community.

Life

Opie was born in Sandusky, Ohio. She spent her early childhood in Ohio,[5] and was influenced heavily by photographer Lewis Hine.[6] At the age of nine she received a Kodak Instamatic camera, and immediately began taking photographs of her family and community.[7] She evolved as an artist at age 14 when she created her own darkroom.[8]

She later received a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 1988. Prior to arriving at CalArts, she was a strictly black-and-white photographer. Opie's thesis project entitled Master Plan (1988) examined a wide variety of topics. The project looked deeper into construction sites, advertisement schemes, homeowner regulations, and the interior layout of their homes within the community of Valencia, California.

In 1988 Opie moved to Los Angeles, California and began working as an artist. She supported herself by accepting a job as a lab technician at the University of California, Irvine.[9] Opie and her partner, painter Julie Burleigh,[10] constructed working studios in the backyard of their home in South Central Los Angeles.[11]

In 2001, Opie gave birth to a boy named Oliver though intrauterine insemination.[12]

At the Hammer Museum, Opie was on the first Artist Council (a series of sessions with curators and museum administrators) and served on the board of overseers.[13] Along with fellow artists John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger and Ed Ruscha, Opie served as member on the board for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. In 2012, she and the others resigned; however, they joined the museum's 14-member search committee for a new director after Jeffrey Deitch's resignation in 2013.[14] Opie returned in support of the museum's new director, Philippe Vergne, in 2014.[15] She was also on the board of the Andy Warhol Foundation.[4]

Along with Richard Hawkins, Opie curated a selection of work by the late artist, Tony Greene, at the 2014 Whitney Biennial, in New York.[16]

Opie's teaching career began in 2001 at University of California, Los Angeles. She currently instructs numerous courses, and serves as a board member for Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as the Andy Warhol Foundation.[8]

Work
Dusty by Opie, 2007

Opie's work is characterized by a combination of formal concerns, a variety of printing technologies, references to art history, and social/political commentary. It demonstrates a mix between traditional photography and unconventional subjects.[7] For example, she explores abstraction in the landscape vis-a-vis the placement of the horizon line in the Icehouses (2001)[17] and Surfers (2003) series.[18] She has printed photographs using chromochrome, iris prints, Polaroids, and silver photogravure. Examples of art history references include the use of bright color backgrounds in portraits which reference the work of Hans Holbein[11] and the full body frontal portraits that reference August Sander.

Opie's work from the 1990s could be related to the traditions of Renaissance and Baroque art: placing her subjects central to the composition, utilizing stark, dramatic light source, allowing her subjects to fall in front of rich backgrounds; Opie's images relay a more aggressive undertone. Certain art historical attributes throughout her images, themes and/or icons that have been referenced throughout art history.

Opie first came to be known with Being and Having (1991) and Portraits (1993–1997), which portray queer communities in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Being and Having looks at the outward portrayal of masculinity and is a reference to 17th-century Old Master portraiture.[19] It conveyed strong ideals and perceptions based among persons of the LGBT community, referencing gender, age, race and identity; all constructed surrounding identity. This body of work similarly plays with performative aspects and play. These works read as iconography, themselves.

Use of certain symbols in her works have allowed these portraits to sit separately from any of her previous works. The portraits, for instance, from Opie's more recent work in 2012, the image David, uses blood. The symbolism used in this work is recognized as a reoccurring statement for Opie, personally and allegorically. These images convey symbolic references to the celebration, embracing and remembrance of the shift and personal relationship with one's body.

Opie's use of blood is also seen in another work, entitled, Self-portrait/cutting (1993). This particular piece is a photograph of an etching carved into her back. The blood etching is an image of two stick figure women holding hands. Behind them is a house, with birds flying through a partially sunny sky. It is very clearly a child's drawing. Opie is positioned in front of a baroque type wallpaper. It is emerald green, and coated in many symbolistic items. The items with the most symbolic value are the fruits. Fruits are known to symbolize fertility and abundance. It is important in this piece to recognize the significance of the fruit. These two women are not biologically able to produce a child, yet they stand in front of a house representing family. The overall placement of this etching suggests that she is proud to be a part of the LGBT community, yet she still feels the need to cover up her identity in certain situations. She may feel as though she always has to look over her shoulder to feel safe.

Unlike other artists, Opie grounds her work in personal relationships, meanings and histories; however, this unfortunately precedent's the ability for one to read these images outside of the intimate content. Most of Opie's work sits in this very personal community, allowing for selective perceptions. Where some viewers may not understand certain allegories and symbols within her work, individuals who know Opie's work well can very identify specific conceptual or metaphorical statements within the images themselves. Where these images demand to be read as allegories, the performative aspect of this work differs from previous work Opie has produced.

Opie's earlier work relies more heavily on documentary photography as opposed to allegorical, yet still provides a stark relationship to her investigation and use of powerful iconography throughout the years.[20]

A common social/political theme in her work is the concept of community. Opie has investigated aspects of community, making portraits of many groups including LGBT community; surfers; and most recently high school football players. Opie is interested in how identities are shaped by our surrounding architecture. Her work is informed by her identity as an out lesbian.[21] Her works balance personal and political. Her assertive portraits bring queers to a forefront that is normally silenced by societal norms. Her work also explores how the idea of family varies between straight and LGBTQ communities. Opie highlights that LGBTQ households often base their families in close friendships and community while straight families focus on their individual family.[22]

Opie has referenced problems of visibility; where the reference to Renaissance paintings in her images declare the individuals as saints or characters. Opie's portraits document, celebrate and protect the community and individuals in which she photographs.[23] In Portraits (1993–1997) she presents a variety of identities among the queer community such as drag kings, cross dressers, and F-to-M transexuals.[24][19] During her time in Los Angeles, Opie focused heavily on her surrounding environment for her works Houses, Freeways, and Mini-malls. Houses (1995–1996) shifted towards domestic architecture through portraits of Beverly Hills and Bel Air mansions. Freeways (1994–1995) depicts the Los Angeles highway system in black and white, which was unique to her usual style. Mini-malls (1997–1998) concluded her works on iconic images of Los Angeles culture by depicting billboards as well as identifying various ethnic groups in shopping centers.

This Los Angeles-focused series sparked her ongoing project American Cities (1997–present) which is a collection of panoramic black-and-white photographs of quintessential American cities. This series is similar to an earlier work of hers, Domestic (1995–1998) which documented her 2-month RV road trip, portraying lesbian families engaging in everyday house-hold activities across the country.[25]

Drawing inspiration from transgressive photography of Robert Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin, and sex radicals, who provided a space for liberals and feminists, Opie has also explored controversial topics and imagery in her work. In her O folio—6 photogravures from 1999—Opie photographed S-M porn images she took earlier for On Our Backs, but as extreme close-ups.

Opie's first film The Modernist (2017) is a tribute to French filmmaker Chris Marker's 1962 classic La Jetée.[26] Composed of 800 still images, the film features Pig Pen (aka Stosh Fila)—a genderqueer performance artist—as the protagonist. The Modernist has been described as an ode to the city in which it takes place, Los Angeles, but it is also seen as questioning the legacy of modernism in America.[27] The twenty-two-minute film, in summary, is about an aggravated artist who just wants his own homes as he has fallen in love with the architecture of Los Angeles. Being unable to purchase a place to live, the performance artist goes around burning down lovely architecture of LA.[28]

Publications
  • Freeways. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
  • Catherine Opie, essays by Kate Bush, Joshua Decter & Russell Ferguson. The Photographers' Gallery, London.
  • Catherine Opie: In Between Here and There. Saint Louis, MO: Saint Louis Art Museum, 2000. With an essay by Rochelle Steiner. Exhibition catalogue.
  • Catherine Opie. The Photographers' Gallery, London, 2000.
  • Catherine Opie: Skyways and Ice Houses. Walker Art Center 2002.
  • 1999 / In and Around Home. The Aldrich Contemporary Museum of Art, Ridgefield, CT, and the Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA, 2006.
  • Chicago (American Cities), curated by Elizabeth T.A. Smith, published by Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2006.
  • Catherine Opie: An American Photographer. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, 2008. ISBN 978-0892073757
  • "Catherine Opie" This is Not to be Looked At. Morse, Rebecca. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, 2008.
  • Catherine Opie: Empty and Full, Molesworth, Helen, ed. Hatje Cantz, Stuttgart, 2011. ISBN 978-3775730150
  • 700 Nimes Road, Catherine Opie, with essays by Hilton Als, Ingrid Sischy, Prestel, Munich, 2015. ISBN 978-3791354255
  • Catherine Opie: Keeping an Eye on the World. Buchhandlung Walter König, König, 2017.[29]

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions
  • Catherine Opie, The Photographers' Gallery, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
  • Catherine Opie: American Photographer, Guggenheim Museum, New York City, September 26, 2008 – January 7, 2009. It included an encyclopedic exhibition catalogue of all of Opie's almost 200 works since 1988, loosely divided into two sections: portraits and landscapes.
  • Somewhere in the Middle, 2011. Permanent installation in the Hillcrest Hospital Cleveland Clinic. The original work was created to engage hospital visitors, employees, and patients during difficult moments in their life.[30]
  • Catherine Opie: Empty and Full, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 2011.[31]
  • Catherine Opie: Portraits and Landscapes, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, 2015.[32]
  • Catherine Opie: 700 Nimes Road, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2016.[33]
  • Catherine Opie: The Modernist. Regen Projects, Los Angeles, 2018.[34]
  • Catherine Opie—Keeping an Eye on the World, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, October 6, 2017 – January 7, 2018.[29]

Group exhibitions
  • Kiss My Genders. Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London, 2019. Opie's work is featured alongside photographic, video, and installation works by Holly Falconer, Peter Hujar, and Del LaGrace Volcano.[35][36]

Awards
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References
  1. "Catherine Opie – Artists – Regen Projects". www.regenprojects.com. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  2. Steve Appleford (January 27, 2013), Catherine Opie's documentary photography is on display Los Angeles Times.
  3. "Catherine Opie – Professor, Photography". UCLA Official website. Retrieved November 30, 2010.
  4. Levy, Ariel (March 13, 2017). "Secret Selves". The New Yorker: 58.
  5. Liesl Bradner (August 21, 2010), Football and art collide at LACMA Los Angeles Times.
  6. Reilly, Maura (2001). "The Drive to Describe: An Interview with Catherine Opie". Art Journal. 60 (2): 82–95. doi:10.2307/778066. ISSN 0004-3249. JSTOR 778066.
  7. "Catherine Opie: American Photographer". Guggenheim. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Archived from the original on March 28, 2015. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  8. "Catherine Opie Biography, Life & Quotes". The Art Story. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  9. Catherine Opie: American Photographer, September 26, 2008 – January 7, 2009 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
  10. Lisa Boone (April 12, 2013), Garden is her canvas, flowers and edibles (and chickens) her paint Los Angeles Times.
  11. Hilarie M. Sheets (January 27, 2013), Home Views, Bound by Ice or Leather The New York Times.
  12. Levy, Ariel (March 6, 2017). "Catherine Opie, All-American Subversive". ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  13. Susan Emerling (April 19, 2009), The Hammer Museum gets together with artists, outside the box Los Angeles Times.
  14. Mike Boehm (September 24, 2013), MOCA adds artists who resigned from board to its director search team Los Angeles Times.
  15. Mike Boehm and Deborah Vankin (March 19, 2014), Artists return to MOCA board Los Angeles Times.
  16. David Ng (November 15, 2013), "Whitney Biennial 2014 to include L.A. artists, David Foster Wallace". Los Angeles Times.
  17. Minneapolis Institute of Art. "Untitled #14 (Icehouses)". Minneapolis Institute of Art. Retrieved August 24, 2015.
  18. "Icehouses and Surfers". Guggenheim. September 1, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
  19. Guralnik, Orna (2013). "Being and Having an Identity: Catherine Opie". Studies in Gender and Sexuality. 14 (3): 239–244. doi:10.1080/15240657.2013.818872.
  20. Getsy, David (February 2, 2017). "Catherine Opie, Portraiture, and the Decoy of the Iconography" (PDF). School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 22, 2017.
  21. "Catherine Opie gives us "Girlfriends" - AfterEllen.com". July 17, 2012. Archived from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  22. Heartney, Eleanor, Helaine Posner, Nancy Princenthal, and Sue Scott. The Reckoning: Women Artists of the New Millennium. Munich: Prestel, 2013.
  23. Getsy, David (February 2, 2017). "Catherine Opie, Portraiture, and the Decoy of Iconography" (PDF). School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 22, 2017.
  24. "Portraits". Guggenheim. September 8, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
  25. Gurealnik, Orna (2013). "Being and Having an Identity: Catherine Opie". New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis: 2 – via Routledge Taylor&Francis Group.
  26. Sparks, Kaegan. "Catherine Opie – Art in America". Retrieved March 22, 2019.
  27. "An Eerie Ode to LA Architecture in Catherine Opie's First Film". Hyperallergic. February 8, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
  28. "An Eerie Ode to LA Architecture in Catherine Opie's First Film". Hyperallergic. February 8, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  29. 1961–, Opie, Catherine (2017). Catherine Opie : keeping an eye on the world. Hansen, Tone., Bresciani, Ana María., Henie-Onstad kunstsenter. Köln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König. ISBN 978-3960982074. OCLC 1003758665.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  30. Forester, Ian (March 3, 2015). "Catherine Opie: Cleveland Clinic" (Video). Art21. Art21 Annual Fund Contributors. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  31. ICA. "Catherine Opie". Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Mark and Marie Schwartz, the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, Sandy and Les Nanberg, and Regen Projects. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  32. "Catherine Opie: Portraits and Landscapes | Wexner Center for the Arts". wexarts.org. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  33. "A Catherine Opie moment in Los Angeles at MOCA and the Hammer". latimes.com. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  34. Mizota, Sharon. "Lautner fans, be warned: Catherine Opie's 'The Modernist' will play like a horror movie". latimes.com. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  35. Jones, Jonathan (June 11, 2019). "Kiss My Genders review – a sinful, sensational walk on the wild side". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved December 12, 2019 – via www.theguardian.com.
  36. "Kiss My Genders review: Enthralling, with a crucial sense of activism". Evening Standard. June 12, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  37. "L.A. Story: Catherine Opie on Her Controversial Photographs of Los Angeles Subcultures, in 1998". ArtNews. January 22, 2016. Archived from the original on April 14, 2016. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
  38. Mike Boehm (October 26, 2010), Herb Alpert-funded awards will pay five artists $75,000 each Los Angeles Times.
  39. "Catherine Opie Named 2004 Larry Aldrich Award Recipient – Announcements – e-flux". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  40. https://art21.org/artist/catherine-opie/
  41. Regen Projects, Catherine Opie. "Biography". Regen Projects. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  42. "Opie receives Smithsonian's Archives of American Art Medal". UCLA. January 3, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
  43. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 2, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2018.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  44. "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation". Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  45. Easter, Makeda. "Guggenheim fellowship 2019: Robin Coste Lewis and Catherine Opie among 20 SoCal winners". latimes.com. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
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