New York gallery Lehmann Maupin is going big with its solo debut for photographer Catherine Opie, giving over its Chelsea and Lower East Side galleries to two separate Opie shows.
Opie built her reputation shooting lesbian, gay and transgender subjects with a kind of compassionate classicism – as well as stunning abstract American landscapes – in the 1990s. And, in that sense, 'Portraits and Landscapes', an exhibition of new works at the Chelsea site, is classic Opie.
The exhibition includes portraits of fashion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte, the artist Kara Walker, film director John Waters, fashion editor Cecilia Dean and New Yorker theatre critic and occasional curator Hilton Als. All are shot in the classical fashion, against a black background and with chiaroscuro lighting. It’s classic icon-making for an alternative set of icons. Around these are her landscapes, blurred or otherwise abstracted and unrecognisable as any particular place or time.
The Lower East Side show, '700 Nimes Road', is a more singular project – 50 photographs of the interiors and favourite objects of the late Elizabeth Taylor. Opie spent six months shooting inside Taylor’s LA home in 2010, while the Hollywood legend was ill but still very much alive. Though Taylor doesn’t appear in any of the images, it is as an intimate portrait of another icon who combined a fierce intelligence with high camp.
And Opie is having a bit of a moment in LA too. A selection of the '700 Nimes Road' images is being shown at MOCA's Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, while another exhibition of portraits opens at LA’s Hammer Museum on 30 January. A site-specific installation at the Los Angeles Federal Courthouse opens in June this year.
Pictured left: Mary, 2012. Right: Untitled No 13, 2015
Opie shot to fame in the 1990s with her classical portraits of lesbian, gay and transgender figures, as well as her beautiful landscapes. These two exhibitions, which run simultaneously, offer a chance to appreciate the dual-narrative of Opie’s work.
Courtesy the artist, Regen Projects and Lehmann Maupin Gallery
The Chelsea show presents Opie’s classical renderings of individuals such as Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte, the artist Kara Walker, film director John Waters and fashion editor Cecilia Dean.
The Lower East Side show, 700 Nimes Road, focuses on the objects and interiors owned and created by actress Elizabeth Taylor, as seen through Opie’s lens. Pictured: Fang and Chanel, 2010–11
This intimate collection of images was captured in 2010, prior to the Hollywood icon’s death in March the following year. Pictured: Krupp Diamond, 2010–11
Bedside Table, 2010–11
The Quest for Japanese Beef, 2010–11
Pictured: Kitchen Table, 2010–11
As well as this epicentre of activity in New York, select pieces from the ’700 Nimes Road’ collection are also being displayed in LA at LACMA’s Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood; while an entirely distinct portrait exhibition opens at LA’s Hammer Museum on 30 January this year.
INFORMATION
’Catherine Opie: Portraits and Landscapes’ and ’700 Nimes Road’ are on view until 20 February. For more information, visit Lehmann Maupin’s website
Photography courtesy Lehmann Maupin
ADDRESS
Lehmann Maupin
536 West 22nd Street,
New York, NY 10011
201 Chrystie Street
New York, NY 10002
-
Dine within a rationalist design gem at the newly opened Cucina TriennaleCucina Triennale is the latest space to open at Triennale Milano, a restaurant and a café by Luca Cipelletti and Unifor, inspired by the building's 1930s design
-
The collections you might have missed this S/S 2026 menswear seasonBetween the headliners in Paris, Milan and Florence, a few off-schedule displays are deserving of honourable mention – from Martine Rose’s sexually-charged portrait of Kensington Market to Sander Lak’s appointment-only namesake debut
-
Meet artist Michael McGregor, using hotel stationery as his canvasMichael McGregor unveils an exclusive postcard set made with notepads from The Luxury Collection properties in Minneapolis, San Francisco and Savannah
-
‘Her pictures looked like pictures everybody knew were the truth’: Diane Arbus at the ArmoryMatthieu Humery curates more than 400 of Arbus’ photographs at New York’s Park Avenue Armory – every picture she was known to have printed
-
Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscapeArtist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt was a jam-packed week for the Wallpaper* staff, entailing furniture, tech and music launches and lots of good food – from afternoon tea to omakase
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this weekThis week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, DiversGeordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took placeMarc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
-
A major Takashi Murakami exhibition sees the world in kaleidoscopic colourThe Cleveland Art Museum presents 'Takashi Murakami 'Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow', exploring outrage and escapist fantasy
-
Ai Weiwei’s new public installation is coming soon to Four Freedoms State Park‘Camouflage’ by Ai Weiwei will launch the inaugural Art X Freedom project in September 2025, a new programme to investigate social justice and freedom
