In a time when homophobic and transphobic hate crimes are rising (up 20% from 2020, according to Stonewall), having visible and celebrated queerness is more important than ever. And that is undoubtedly what Catherine Opie’s To Be Seen at the National Gallery is – a triumphant visual spectacle of queerness.
The exhibition, which is open until Sunday 1 November, begins with a short film playing on loop. In it, the artist discusses some of the photos being featured, as well as talking in detail about the selection of paintings from the National Gallery’s collection which are shown alongside Opie’s photographs.
In it, Opie, one of Time Magazine’s inaugural TIME100 Art List members, discusses how her portraiture has always been in conversation with classical paintings, particularly Munch’s full-length portraits. However, Opie is clear that she has always been intent on creation rather than simple homage: “It’s really important for me to not copy, to make something original and of the time.”
Her focus on portrait photography as a means to document a moment is repeated. “Photography truly captures a moment in time, that’s why I love portraiture,” says Opie as she discusses identity formation and performance in her photographs. She describes pictures as “moments of being”, and platforms of “staging identity,” a sentiment which is visible through her work in the queer community.
Speaking specifically about To Be Seen, which was co-curated with the artist and takes up the whole main floor of the Royal Scottish Academy Building, Opie said, “This show begins to puncture ideas around how we view people, how we view identity, how we view history. And I would hope that everybody just leans into a better place of kindness.”
The exhibition is brightly lit and airy. Bold colours frame Opie’s precise photographs, often acting as a bridge between a contemporary photo by Opie and a work of classic painting.
Opie’s iconic Self Portrait/Nursing is displayed alongside a painting of the kind that inspired the artist, Madonna and Child in Garden, a Netherlandish work from around 1500. The red cloth draped behind Opie and her son echoes the red dress worn by Madonna as she holds baby Jesus on her lap.
“One of the best and most profound things of my life was having and raising a family,” said Opie in the short film. Opie described using inspiration from similar classical works, including Hans Holbein the Younger, “as a guiding force to document my community and make them my own royal family.”
The queer experience of parenthood is so often hidden from the world and considered taboo. Opie was determined to explore questions around lesbian motherhood through her work. “What does it mean to be an older lesbian who identifies as butch to have a baby and nurse my own child?” she asks in the placard for Self Portrait/Nursing. A further quote from the artist is included alongside the short film: “I don’t believe in singular identities. If you think about me being a lesbian mum, what does a lesbian mum really mean? I’m really just a mum.”
Being and Having is Opie’s first major work and depicts members of her community amongst the West Coast leather dyke scene. From this early 1991 work, Opie began to play with binary perceptions of gender, identity, and performance. Despite the masculine appearance of the subjects, the photos are all of women, including Opie herself as Bo, in the top left corner. Being embedded within the community and the work she makes from it has always been important to Opie.
This series of photos aims to deliberately position women in masculine spaces, with the choice to have the close-cropped faces staring straight at the camera a deliberate one. “Being and Having stares right back at you,” says Opie, “we’re women occupying masculine spaces.”
Much of Opie’s work combines these playful representations of queer identity with the yearning that comes alongside it. Her Self Portrait/Cutting (1993) depicts a stick figure drawing of a lesbian family home with two mums and a child, carved into the skin of the artist’s back. It is designed to show how painful and destructive the relationship to dreams of family has been for Opie. As a queer person, questions of motherhood and domesticity are complex and fraught, especially in the 1990’s, when gay marriage was not yet legalised, and the UK was still under the shadow of Section 28. Its prominence in this 2026 exhibit remains relevant as rights are being challenged and threatened by conservative governments across the world.
The exhibition includes nearly 80 of Catherine Opie’s portraits, positioned alongside 13 paintings from the national collection. The thoughtful arrangement of each of these works pulls together questions of identity, representation, community, and inspiration into a cohesive and thought-provoking gallery. It is particularly poignant for queer visitors, but the way Opie’s work humanises queerness emphasises its importance to non-queer audiences.
If we can view each other as complex, playful, yearning, familial, thoughtful, it will be easier to do as Opie asks of us and lean into a better place of kindness.
Tickets are still available to see the exhibition.
Feature image credit: Ali Rees
Student journalist & freelance writer. Check out Quick Play, where I review video games that are 10 hours or less.
