Queer America is under attack at the moment, so the representation of LGBTQ American lives is more important than ever. It’s therefore ideal timing for Catherine Opie’s first major UK museum show, To Be Seen, which is now on at London’s National Portrait Gallery.

Since she launched her career in the late 1980s, queer representation has been the backbone of Opie’s colourful portraiture work, alongside her beautiful landscapes. Her 1991 show Being and Having and the later Portraits (1993-1997) documented the queer communities in Los Angeles and San Francisco. These remain, for me, her most iconic work, and gems from these shows are included in To Be Seen. Highlights include 1993’s Dyke which shows a friend of hers, Steakhouse, with the word Dyke carved into the back of her neck, a quite attention-grabbing piece at the time. Opie’s most famous piece is arguably 1993’s Self Portrait/Cutting which shows a child’s silhouette drawing of a family carved into her bloodied back. This is also in the show. Another special exhibit is 2004’s Self Portrait/Nursing, showing Opie breastfeeding her baby in a classic Madonna and Child pose.

Opie’s portraiture records and reflects the West Coast USA communities around her – children, surfers, sports people, those at political rallies and so on, but particularly those of queer women. Drag Kings, bikers, butch lesbians, trans men and S&M dykes abound. This show is very evocative of early 1990’s Los Angeles and San Francisco, a simpler time when living an alternative, bohemian life in both cities was much easier. Maybe this is why her subjects from back then look relaxed. Opie’s show also includes images of American footballers and other men, including a striking image of a man in a baseball cap with an American Patriot insignia. In the past this man would have been assumed, without much further thought, to be just another American oddball. Now he presents as maybe a racist, fascist MAGA supporter.

It’s interesting to see how our attitudes are hardening towards those outside our communities.

A thought-provoking show.