Created in close collaboration with the artist, Catherine Opie: To Be Seen will bring together works spanning 30 years of Opie’s pioneering career. Alongside the exhibition will be a series of interventions within the NPG’s Collection galleries.
This exhibition of photographic portraits by American artist Catherine Opie will be the first major museum exhibition of her work to be shown in the UK. Exploring themes of social, political and individual identity, through studio portraiture, environmental studies and documentary images, Catherine Opie: To Be Seen will bring together over 80 photographs spanning 30 years of Opie’s groundbreaking career, including her first major work, Being and Having (1991), ennobling portraits of LGBTQ+ friends inspired by court painter Hans Holbein and Baroque-like portraits of artists.
“I would like to thank the National Portrait Gallery for this incredible honor of presenting my work in London. My hope is that the audience will leave the exhibition with a broader understanding of what portraiture can achieve – that in our culture of creating portraits of known nobility and a kind of celebrity, that everyone begins to understand identity through being seen. The NPG’s commitment to this vision for the past four years in making the show is truly linked to a profound relationship to the very history of the institution in curating this exhibition.”
Catherine Opie Artist
One of the most influential artists of our time, Opie’s work is driven by the urgency to chronicle the ebb and flow of human culture. Her wide-ranging oeuvre features projects ranging from documenting Queer communities in Los Angeles to analyses of the Catholic Church to abstract landscapes.
At the basis of her practice is her ongoing questioning of evolving ideas of community, identity and belonging. For Opie, portraiture is a radical act of representation – a desire to make the invisible visible and a gesture of belonging and resistance. Grounded in the documentary tradition, her work continually eschews sensationalism, instead attempting to build nuanced pictures of civic life. For all their conceptual rigour and formalism, Opie’s photographs convey a sense of a shared humanity and beauty.
Through careful curation, Opie explores the function of a National Portrait Gallery, its influence on those who visit and our relationship with national identity. Designed by architect Katy Barkan, the exhibition space will consist of three rooms that create a dialogue with the permanent galleries.
The first room, a perfect square, will hold the first exhibited portraits by and of the artist, including Being and Having (1991), comprised of 13 portraits of Opie as ‘Bo’ and her leather dyke community enacting their moustachioed masculine alter-egos. The second room, purposefully colliding with the existing Gallery wall, narrates a series of portraits and landscapes inspired by art history. The third space frames figures drawn from Opie’s series’ High School Football (2007-09) and Surfers (2003), exploring themes of constructed community and masculinity, with the works crowded at the back of the Gallery space.
Alongside the exhibition, there are a number of decisive interventions within seven Collection galleries.
Opie’s artistic practice attests to her great sense of humanity and care, whether as a university professor, a mother, a member of the queer community, an American or a world citizen. Her portraits of fellow artists, friends, children and protestors draw attention to the power of visibility. From photographs covering Barack Obama’s Inauguration, Tea Party rallies, and LGBTQ+ rights protests, to tender family moments and vulnerable self-portraits, Opie’s photographs collapse divisions between the personal and the political.
Catherine Opie: To Be Seen will see Opie’s portraits work in dialogue with one another to create new narratives, challenging viewers to reflect on the figures most commonly portrayed in art and those who go unseen.
“It has been a joy to embrace Opie’s personal viewpoint of humanity, and to step back and consider who, at the National Portrait Gallery, is celebrated and how we can broaden and enrich the stories we tell. Opie’s meticulous and conceptual approach to portraiture originates from a deep sense of care for her community, and as a keen observer of the dynamic social world around us.”
Clare Freestone Photographs Curator, Photography, National Portrait Gallery
“I am thrilled to see this exhibition of Catherine Opie’s work come to fruition at the National Portrait Gallery, both in our exhibition space and across the collection. Cathy’s portraits are a timely reflection on the power of representation and the importance of being seen. I’m so grateful to her for her trust, her collaboration and generosity of spirit and for co-curating this exhibition with such great sensitivity alongside Clare Freestone. We are really proud to bring this important exhibition to audiences in the UK.”
Victoria Siddall Director, National Portrait Gallery
Catherine Opie: To Be Seen, 5th March – 31st May 2026, National Portrait Gallery
Associated Exhibition Events
Catherine Opie In Conversation Friday 6th March 19.00-20.00 The Ondaatje Wing Lecture Theatre
Onsite £15 Full Price, £12 Concessions Online £10 Full Price, £8 Concessions
To celebrate the opening of Catherine Opie’s exhibition Catherine Opie: To Be Seen join the world-renowned American photographer in conversation. Over the past 30 years, Opie has explored and positioned the portrait in numerous contexts and visual formats. Conceptually rigorous and formally executed, her photographs make visible queer communities, mentors and collaborators, children, surfers, high school footballers, political crowds and Opie herself, through self-portraiture. Through this livestreamed conversation Opie will introduce the exhibition she has curated for the National Portrait Gallery, the first major display of her work in the UK.
Weekend Workshop – To be Seen: Explore queer representation and identity in photography
Saturday 18th April 11.00-17.00 The Law Photography Studio £125 Full Price, £100 Concession
Inspired by the exhibition Catherine Opie: To Be Seen explore queer representation and identity in photography through this one-day digital photography workshop with photographer Kate Peters.
Over the past 30 years, Opie has explored and positioned the portrait in numerous contexts and visual formats. Conceptually rigorous and formally executed, her photographs make visible queer communities, mentors and collaborators, children, surfers, high school footballers, political crowds and Opie herself, through self-portraiture. Tickets include a visit to the exhibition itself.
Maximum participants 15. All materials and equipment will be provided.
Members’ Event Curator’s Tour of Catherine Opie: To Be Seen Friday 27th March 18.30-19.30
Meeting Point: Main Hall £25 Join this exclusive Members’ only tour of Catherine Opie: To Be Seen, with the National Portrait Gallery’s Curator of Photography Clare Freestone. Explore this exhibition which showcases photographic portraits by the American artist Catherine Opie. The exhibition, curated in collaboration with the artist, is the first major museum exhibition of her work in the UK.
Maximum participants 20.
