Catherine Opie: To Be Seen opens this week at the National Galleries of Scotland. Curated in collaboration with the artist and touring to Edinburgh from the National Portrait Gallery in London, this is is the first major museum exhibition of Opie’s work to be shown in the UK and her first ever solo exhibition in Scotland.

Opie’s photographs make visible queer communities, her mentors and collaborators, children, surfers, high school footballers, political crowds and Opie herself, through self-portraiture. The exhibition features nearly 80 photographs spanning 30 years of Opie’s groundbreaking career beginning with her first major work, Being and Having (1991), as well as portraits of LGBTQ+ friends inspired by court painter Hans Holbein, through to her Baroque-like portraits of other artists.

In To Be Seen, portraits work in dialogue with one another to create new narratives, challenging viewers to reflect on the figures most commonly portrayed in art, and those who go unseen. Specially adapted for presentation at the National Galleries of Scotland, the exhibition also places Opie’s photographs alongside her own selection of works from Scotland’s national art collection.

Catherine Opie: To Be Seen

8 August–1 November 2026

A National Galleries of Scotland exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy building
The Mound
Edinburgh
EH2 2EL

Entry to the exhibition is free for under 18s.

Opening Talk: Friday 7 August 2026, 12.45–1.45pm
This in-person event is sold out, but tickets are still available to watch a live stream online. Click here to book.