Hudson (Show)Room Exhibition
03.22.00
About the Exhibition
Catherine Opie's large-scaled photographs of people and places have drawn international
attention for their formal clarity and psychological charge. Her one-person exhibition at
ArtPace will showcase selections from two recent bodies of work: the Houses
and the Domestics. In the Houses (1995-96), Opie focuses her camera on
the stylized facades of Southern California homes. Tightly framed, Opie's prints draw
attention to the theatrical architecture of many Beverly Hills homes. Isolated and
isolating (with doors sealed and security signs visible) Opie's houses suggest tension,
rather than comfort.
Conversely, in the Domestics, Opie brings her camera, and the viewer,
indoors. Here she photographs personal scenes of domestic life, particularly, the lives of
lesbian families. Photographed with their partners, their children, and their friends,
Opie's subjects are engaged in the emotions and activities of everyday life. Unlike the
artist's previous portraits, in which subjects were posed against color backdrops, the
Domestics suggest candid views of home life.
About the Artist
Catherine Opie was born in 1961 in Sandusky, Ohio and received her M.F.A. from
California Institute of the Arts in 1988. Her work was included in notable exhibitions
throughout the 1990s, including: The American Century (Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York, 1999 ); Sunshine & Noir: Art in L.A. 1960-1997 (The
Lousiana Museum, Denmark, 1997); Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose: Gender
Performance in Photograpghy (Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1997);
Persona (Renaissance Society, Chicago, 1996); In a Different Light
(University Art Museum at Berkeley, 1995); among others. In 1997 she was awarded
the Citibank Private Bank Emerging Artist Award from the Museum of Contemporary
Art, Los Angeles. A long-time Los Angeles resident, Opie will join the faculty of Yale
University in the Photography Department later this year.
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