Los Angeles-based artist Catherine Opie is in London for the opening of her solo exhibition "Portraits and Landscapes" at Thomas Dane Gallery, following the installation of her major survey "Keeping an Eye on the World" at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Norway. The show features one large-scale abstracted portrait of the British coast and 13 Old Master-influenced portraits of renowned contemporary artists and figures, including David Hockney, Anish Kapoor, Duro Olowu, Thelma Golden, Gillian Wearing, Isaac Julien, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. In an interview, Opie discusses her choice of sitters, her formal portrait techniques, and the meta-portrait quality of riffing on the subjects' own artistic practices.
This interview matters because Catherine Opie is a highly influential photographer whose career has long documented queer and leather communities, and her current work continues to challenge conventions of portraiture by blending classical aesthetics with contemporary subjects. Her fearless commentary on the Trump presidency, the rise of hate crimes in the US, and rampant misogyny in the art world underscores the political and social dimensions of her practice. The exhibition also highlights the ongoing dialogue between photography and Old Master painting, and the importance of representation across generations of creative figures.