Catherine Opie: To Be Seen

8 Aug-1 Nov 2026

Self Portrait / Nursing, 2004, Catherine Opie

Overview

Discover the powerful photographic portraits by American artist Catherine Opie. Curated in collaboration with the artist and touring to Edinburgh from the National Portrait Gallery in London, Catherine Opie: To Be Seen is the first major museum exhibition of her work to be shown in the UK and first ever solo exhibition in Scotland.

Discover nearly 80 portraits by Opie alongside a selection of portraits from Scotland’s national collection, prompting questions around the who, why and how of portraits. Come face to face with Opie's mentors and collaborators, queer communities, children, surfers, high school footballers and political crowds that she makes visible through her work, as well as self-portraits of Opie herself. Journey through 30 years of the artist’s work as she questions representations of home, intimacy and family, and explores politics, identity and power structures. Catherine Opie: To Be Seen will span the artist’s first major work, Being and Having (1991), and her ennobling portraits of LGBTQ+ friends inspired by court painter Hans Holbein, through to her Baroque-like portraits of artists. Opie's portraits work together to create new narratives, challenging viewers to think about the figures most commonly portrayed in art and those who go unseen.