Heide Museum of Modern Art presents the first-ever Australian survey of Catherine Opie’s photographic career to date, featuring over three decades of portraits, storytelling and recording queer history, identity and family.
Heide first exhibited a small collection of Opie’s work in 1994, including one piece Justin Bond (1993) which has now returned almost 30 years later to join this survey of Opie’s work. With over 50 works from Opie’s staggering career, Binding Ties includes early portraits of her friends and queer community in Los Angeles and San Francisco, all the way through to her more recent works exploring community responses and ‘collective action in the face of proliferating global crises.’ Some of these early portraits include members of the queer community that are now, sadly, no longer with us. This recording of lives lost to the AIDS pandemic, particularly in the wake of COVID, give us what guest exhibition curator Brooke Babington describes as “an opportunity to consider these works and their relations—their affiliations—with us and one another anew.”
When: Until July 9, 2023. Tuesday-Sunday – 10 am to 5 pm. (Closed Mondays)
Where: Heide Museum of Modern Art, 7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen
Tickets: Free for members, children under 16 years and residents of Manningham (proof of address required)