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# Catherine Opie’s Intimate Los Angeles
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/catherine-opie-intimate-los-angeles/
- Published: 2024-02-28T21:56:20.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:01:41.000Z
- Description: The works in Opie’s harmony is fraught are documents that bear witness, but they also highlight the connection between our public and private lives.
- Author: Rebecca Schiffman
- Tags: Art, Catherine Opie, Featured, Los Angeles, Photography, Regen Projects, Review, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-large, #Import 2025-11-24 09:36 (2023, 2024, part 2)

LOS ANGELES — A medicine cabinet can say a lot about people: what they value, how they want to present themselves, and how they care for their spaces and physical bodies. In her latest photography show, [*harmony is fraught*](https://www.regenprojects.com/exhibitions/catherine-opie12?ref=hyperallergic.com) at Regen Projects, Catherine Opie puts her medicine cabinet — among other personal images — on display, revealing to visitors what makes the artist who she is. On the top shelf is a fake mustache and glue, a reminder of her alter ego from the 1991 series *Being and Having.* Below that, Vagisil leans next to a dildo and lube, Preparation-H sits next to floss and a clay face mask, and a tampon is tucked behind it all. It’s queer identity in its most poignant and raw form, proudly on view. 

Across over 60 photographs that have never been shown publicly, Opie skillfully juxtaposes quiet personal moments with images of LA's infrastructure and landscape: the freeways, and construction; interior spaces of art studios; queer bars and gay rodeos; and the natural environment of sunlight glimmering through trees. Each work is a thread in Opie’s narrative, intricately weaving together the tapestry of her life in the city that has been her home for three decades. Along the way, she’s navigated relationships, parenthood, and a teaching career at UCLA, and established herself as a renowned photographer. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/02/medicinecabinet_32x40.jpg)

Catherine Opie, "Medicine Cabinet, 1992" (1992/2024), pigment print, framed dimensions:, 41 x 33 x 2 inches; image dimensions: 40 x 32 inches

Each image tells its own story of Opie’s Los Angeles. In one photograph, we see clouds of black smoke on a residential street with palm trees in the distance, a documentation of the 1992 LA uprising as seen from a rooftop. Another shows a queer couple in black leather and spikes in an intimate embrace, the Hollywood sign looming in the background. To the artist, these subjects seen in offhand and private moments are intertwined with the city that nurtures them. 

These works are documents that bear witness, but they also highlight the connection between our public and private lives. Take the photograph “USC Rape Protest” (2021/2024). In 2021, University of Southern California students protested the Sigma Nu fraternity following [reports](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-22/usc-protests-intensify-after-fraternity-suspension-over-alleged-drugging-sexual-assault?ref=hyperallergic.com) of sexual assault and drugging. Opie’s photograph captures the students’ rage and pain. Hundreds of pieces of paper cover the Sigma Nu house. Names and expletives are tagged on and around the building of alleged rapists, and a candle vigil marks the center of the composition. A woman standing in front of the building and reading the names underscores the gravitas of the photograph. “Surfer Landscape” (2003/2024) transports viewers to another world, both physically and emotionally, where surfers in the distance wait to catch a wave. 

With “Oliver/Thanksgiving, 2004” (2004/2024) we find ourselves in a more personal interior: Opie’s son, a boy no older than four, stands on a chair, hands on a raw, pink Thanksgiving turkey. Alongside the vistas of the city and iconic imagery, it’s a warm reminder of all the little moments that create a life.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/02/hollywood_16x16.jpg)

Catherine Opie, "Hollywood, 1990" (1990/2024), pigment print, framed dimensions: 16 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches; image dimensions: 16 x 16 inches

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/02/usc_rape_protest_30x45.jpg)

Catherine Opie, "USC Rape Protest, 2021" (2021/2024), pigment print, framed dimensions: 31 x 46 x 2 inches; image dimensions: 30 x 45 inches

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/02/catherine_millie_30x40.jpg)

Catherine Opie, "Catherine and Millie, 1994" (1994/2024), pigment print, framed dimensions: 31 x 41 x 2 inches; image dimensions: 30 x 40 inches

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/02/uprisingcatalinast_30x37_5.jpg)

Catherine Opie, "L.A. Uprising, Catalina Rooftop, 1992" (1992/2024), pigment print, framed dimensions: 31 x 38 1/2 x 2 inches; image dimensions: 30 x 37 1/2 inches

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/02/cathy_desertedge_9_3x14.jpg)

Catherine Opie, "Cathy, desert edge, 1987" (1987/2024), pigment print, framed dimensions: 9 3/4 x 14 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches; image dimensions: 9 1/4 x 14 inches 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/02/yesmaam_30x37_5.jpg)

Catherine Opie, "Yes Ma'am, 1990" (1990/2024), pigment print, framed dimensions: 38 1/2 x 31 x 2 inches; image dimensions: 37 1/2 x 30 inches 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/02/surferlandscape_30x37_5.jpg)

Catherine Opie, "Surfer Landscape, 2003" (2003/2024), pigment print, framed dimensions: 31 x 38 1/2 x 2 inches; image dimensions: 30 x 37 1/2 inches

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/02/trash_16x16.jpg)

Catherine Opie, "Trash, 1994" (1994/2024), pigment print, framed dimensions: 16 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches; image dimensions: 16 x 16 inches 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/02/oliver_thanksgiving_16x24.jpg)

Catherine Opie, "Oliver/Thanksgiving, 2004" (2004/2024), pigment print, framed dimensions: 24 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches; image dimensions: 24 x 16 inches

[Catherine Opie: harmony is fraught](https://www.regenprojects.com/exhibitions/catherine-opie12?ref=hyperallergic.com) *continues at Regen Projects (6750 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles) through March 3\. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.*