Catherine Opie

Catherine Opie

Exhibition: Apr 6 – Jul 2, 2000


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 showcases works 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.

Artist

Catherine Opie

Los Angeles, California, USA

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.

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