The National Portrait Gallery in London is hosting "To Be Seen," the first major UK museum exhibition dedicated to the American photographer Catherine Opie. Curated in collaboration with the artist, the show spans over 30 years of work, including her seminal 1991 series "Being and Having" and her Holbein-inspired portraits of the LGBTQ+ community. The exhibition is further expanded through a series of interventions where Opie’s contemporary photographs are placed in direct dialogue with the gallery’s permanent collection.
This retrospective marks a significant moment for Opie’s international standing, bringing her rigorous exploration of queer identity, subcultures, and American life to a British institutional audience. By juxtaposing her work with historical portraits, the exhibition challenges traditional narratives of who is deemed worthy of representation in national galleries. It highlights the evolution of portraiture from a tool of elite power to a medium for making marginalized communities and domestic intimacies visible.