Catherine Opie: 700 Nimes Road
MOCA - The Museum of Comtemporary Art, Los Angeles
January 23 - May 8, 2016
Catherine Opie: 700 Nimes Road is organized by MOCA Chief Curator Helen Molesworth.
Major support is provided by J.P. Morgan Private Bank.
MOCA Pacific Design Center
8687 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, CA 90069
www.moca.org
MOCA - The Museum of Comtemporary Art, Los Angeles
January 23 - May 8, 2016
CATHERINE OPIE
Andy Warhol to Elizabeth (Self-Portrait Artist) from the 700 Nimes Road Portfolio, 2010-2011,
Pigment print, 16 ½ x 22 in. (40.6 x 55.9 cm)
© Catherine Opie, Courtesy of Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Lehmann Maupin, New York & Hong Kong
Catherine Opie: 700 Nimes Road presents new and recent work by Los Angeles–based artist Catherine Opie (born 1961, Sandusky, Ohio), an essential figure in contemporary photography. Taken over the course of six months at the Bel-Air, California, residence of the late actress Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011), the exhibition’s photographs are drawn from two series: Closets and Jewels, and 700 Nimes Road. Inspired by William Eggleston’s images of Elvis Presley’s Memphis estate, Graceland, Catherine Opie creates a portrait of Taylor from her personal space and mementos. The artist photographs rooms, closets, shoes, clothing, and jewelry that depict an indirect, yet deeply intimate, portrait of a life defined by wealth and fame. With an investigative eye, Catherine Opie documents the grandeur and minute details of the home in a range of visual scales. Scrutiny tempered with restraint allows objects to accumulate, rooms to become landscapes, and clothing to be transformed into fields of color and be specifically designated or precisely described. In the artist’s words, the project is not about the relationship to celebrity but about “the relationship to what is human.”
MOCA Director Philippe Vergne said, “The way Cathy looks at the world, the city, the citizens, who ever they are, who ever they love, whatever they do, constitutes us as a community. It is an honor to show her work.”
Catherine Opie: 700 Nimes Road is organized by MOCA Chief Curator Helen Molesworth.
Major support is provided by J.P. Morgan Private Bank.
MOCA Pacific Design Center
8687 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, CA 90069
www.moca.org
