"I concentrate on disturbing the devices that society imposes on variant communities to keep them ‘ghettoized’ by class, race, sexuality and gender. It’s important that my work be seductive as a visual language, as I want to keep the viewer engaged. This allows for multiple readings which challenge viewers to consider both people and space in their various complexities." Danger and delicacy commingle in Catherine Opie's photographs, which question representation, reference historical photographic practices, and erect an alternate portrait of America. Working predominantly with large format cameras, Opie has trained her lens on master-planned communities, Los Angeles freeways and mini-malls, members of the gay and lesbian leather community and an on-the-road exploration of lesbian domesticity. Her on-going project, "American Cities," on identity vis à vis place has included forays to St. Louis, Minneapolis, New York's Wall Street; presently she’s working in Chicago. Consistent throughout is her overriding concern for community, its construction and depiction.

Born 1961, Sandusky, Ohio Lives in Los Angeles 1988 M.F.A., California Institute of the Arts 1985 B.F.A., San Francisco Art Institute

	2002	Catherine Opie: Skyways and Icehouses, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
	2000	Catherine Opie: In Between Here and There, The Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
	2000-01	Catherine Opie, The Photographers Gallery, London, England; traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
	1999	Domestic, Regen Projects, Los Angeles
	1997	Houses and Landscapes, Ginza Art Space, Shiseido, Tokyo, Japan
	1994	Portraits, Regen Projects, Los Angeles

	2002	Visions from America: Photographs from the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1940-2000, curated by Sylvia Wolf, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
	2001	Open City Street Photographs Since 1950, co-curated by Kerry Brougher and Russell Ferguson, Museum of Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, England; traveled to The Lowry, Salford Quays, Manchester, England; Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
	1997	Sunshine & Noir: Art in LA 1960-1997, curated by Lars Nittve and Helle Crenzien, Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark; traveled to Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany; Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli, Italy; and the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
	1995	1995 Whitney Biennial, curated by Klaus Kertess, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

	2000-01	Walker Art Center Residency
	1999	Washington University Freund Fellowship
	1997	Citibank Private Bank Emerging Artist Award