Catherine Opie gained fame and generated controversy in the 1990s with her photographs [many self-portraits] depicting Los Angeles’ leather / S&M / body art and transgendered communities. This is a PG-rated (at best) Web site, so we’ll spare you the embarrassment or repulsion of supplying copies [although we will offer a link or two if you really want to check it out for yourself]. Suffice it to say she has been lionized for her bold, unblinking and often disturbing take on various fringe subcultures.
More lately, Opie has switched gears to concentrate on making a series of hugely scaled images of American cities. Having completed chapters in Minneapolis, St Louis and downtown New York, over the last year she focused on Chicago, where she created a group of dazzling black and white night-time streetscapes as well as four color images of Lake Michigan, reflecting the seasons. They’re on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art until Oct. 15.
If you love Chicago architecture, they make it well worth a trip to the MCA, where architecture buffs might also enjoy a show spotlighting cartoon artist Chris Ware, whose work reflects the dark corners of his personal life experience. But in the execution of the drawings themselves, it also illustrates his exuberant delight in the richness of Chicago’s architecture.