2021 Keynote Lecture
with Catherine Opie
4:00pm, March 6, 2021
Catherine Opie, Untitled #8 (Swamps), 2019. Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, and Seoul
On March 6, 2021, Catherine Opie will present the ninth annual Keynote Lecture for the Medium Festival of Photography. The Keynote Lecture anchors the yearly Medium Festival and is a signature highlight of our annual programming. In addition, Opie will present an exclusive virtual studio tour as well as a candid conversation with Leah Ollman for VIP pass holders.
Based in the documentary tradition of photography, Opie’s love of the medium transcends genres and history to include an enthusiastic embrace of all things photographic. Her subject matter is wide ranging—from photographs of her queer BDSM community to recent work photographing swamps in the American south. Through a career spanning more than three decades, Opie’s work has been widely celebrated through more than 50 solo exhibitions as well as numerous publications and monographs. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019 and has photographs in major museum collections worldwide.
Financial Support for the Keynote Lecture is provided by the City of San Diego
All the options for your afternoon with Catherine Opie on Saturday, March 6:
11:00AM - ROUNDTABLE student DISCUSSION WITH CATHERINE OPIE (REGISTERED STUDENTS ONLY)
Are you a full time student? Register with the student option to attend this roundtable, specially designed for students to ask questions and speak with the artist in a casual environment.
2:00PM - virtual STUDIO TOUR WITH CATHERINE OPIE
Exclusive virtual studio tour is automatically included with Catherine Opie Keynote registration!
4:00PM - KEYNOTE LECTURE WITH CATHERINE OPIE (OUTDOOR SCREENINGS AT ART PRODUCE AND THE PHOTOGRAPHERS EYE GALLERY)
Student, Regular and VIP registration available for the Keynote—in addition to a FREE registration option. We are hosting two outdoor screenings at Art Produce (North Park) and The Photographer’s Eye Gallery (Escondido) following social distancing guidelines. If you would like to attend the Escondido screening please register on their website so we have a head count. We will email a manual head count for the North Park location.
Are you a member of Medium? Members attend the Keynote free! Explore membership options!
5:30PM - VIP COCKTAIL HOUR WITH CATHERINE OPIE + LEAH OLLMAN (VIP PASS HOLDERS)
This special VIP fundraiser with Catherine Opie and Leah Ollman, contributing writer for the Los Angeles Times, is included with a VIP Pass, or by registering for the keynote+conversation combination below.
During the cocktail hour, we will raffle a signed copy of Catherine Opie’s forthcoming Phaidon monograph (a $150 value)!
Projects
In her Keynote Lecture, Catherine Opie will share highlights from a robust career that began in the 1980s. Originally from Sandusky, Ohio, Opie’s family moved to Poway, CA, where the young artist built a darkroom in her home and began a long and influential career in photography.
The diverse range of Opie’s work is often described as centering around the idea of “community,” be it photographs of surfers waiting for waves, communities invisible to outsiders, high school football players, or reimagining iconic subjects in new ways. Her passion for photography is infectious, and invites an open sense of curiosity to see the world from new perspectives.
Biography
Catherine Opie is an artist working with photography, film, collage, and ceramics. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad and is held in over 50 major collections throughout the world. Opie received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019, the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art Medal in 2016, the Julius Shulman Excellence in Photography Award in 2013, and a United States Artists Fellowship in 2006. In September of 2008, the Guggenheim Museum in New York opened a mid-career exhibition titled, Catherine Opie: American Photographer. Opie received a B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute, and an M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts in 1988. She is the Lynda and Stewart Resnick endowed Chair in Art and Professor of Photography at UCLA.