Catherine Opie (b. 1961, Sandusky, Ohio, USA) is widely regarded as one of the leading photographers of her generation, often documenting the dynamics of American culture and identity. She received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from California Institute of the Arts. She is Professor Emerita and former Lynda and Stewart Resnick Endowed Chair in Art at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was a professor of photography from 2001 to 2023

For over thirty years, Catherine Opie has captured often overlooked aspects of contemporary American life and culture. One of the most important photographers of her generation, her photographic subjects have included early seminal portraits of the LGBTQ+ community, the architecture of Los Angeles' freeway system, mansions in Beverly Hills, Midwestern icehouses, high school football players, California surfers, abstract landscapes of National Parks, among others. In 2018 Opie debuted her first film, The Modernist, a dystopic view of Los Angeles, a city that has figured prominently in her work over the years. Her complex and diverse body of work is political, personal, and highly aesthetic. The formal, conceptual, and documentary are always at play.

This year, Opie has had several major institutional solo exhibitions throughout Europe at Fridericianum, Kassel; National Portrait Gallery, London; and Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh. She has had several other institutional solo exhibitions, including at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2024), Henie Onstad Art Centre, Oslo (2017), the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016), the Guggenheim Museum, New York (2008), and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2006). Her works have also been shown in numerous international group exhibitions, including at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2022), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek (2021), and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016). Opie has also collaborated on iconic campaigns with celebrated fashion brands such as Gucci (2025) and Prada (2022). Catherine Opie lives and works in Los Angeles.