For almost 40 years, Los Angeles-based artist Catherine Opie (b. 1961 Sandusky, OH) has been documenting with psychological acuity the cultural and geographic identity of contemporary America. Building on her early training in both documentary and conceptual photography, Opie’s work conjoins typological, aesthetic, social, and personal concerns. Her work stems from ongoing investigations of identity through a considered treatment of subjects that create archetypal images out of previously overlooked subjects and sites.

Opie received her BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from California Institute of the Arts. She holds an endowed position in the department of art at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she has been a professor of photography since 2001. Her work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions worldwide, including solo exhibitions at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo (2017); MOCA Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles (2016); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (2015); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2011); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2010); Guggenheim Museum, New York (2008); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2006), among others. Work by the artist is included in the permanent collections of many museums internationally, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; and Centro Cultural Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; among others. Opie is represented by Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong; and Thomas Dane Gallery, London.

Courtesy of Artspace