Dreaming of Home
Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY

Dreaming of Home is a contemporary group exhibition that takes Catherine Opie’s Self Portrait/ Cutting (1993) as its starting point, marking the artwork’s 30th anniversary. This seminal photograph highlights the tension between queer people’s hope for a happy, healthy future and the societal restrictions imposed on queer dreams, relationships, and bodies. In the three decades since Opie created this work, LGBTQIA+ people have witnessed rapid and tumultuous changes. Viewed through a contemporary lens, the questions posed by Opie’s work remain relevant and urgent. Where can we feel at home; in our skin, in each other’s embrace, amongst our chosen families? Where are our queer bodies safe and free to be themselves? How can we build a home within a shifting landscape of global politics? Dreaming of Home brings together a group of international artists living and working in dramatically different socio political contexts, whose work contributes to an increasingly global dialogue about queer experiences. Following in Opie’s footsteps, each artist centralises the queer body in their work, carving in space for themselves and their dreams of home.

Artists included: Catherine Opie, Whiskey Chow, Christina Quarles, Nicole Eisenman, Sola Olulode, Shadi Al Atallah, Jenna Gribbon, Kudzanai Violet Hwame, Cajsa von Zeipel, Ro Roberston, Sarah Francis, Leilah Babirye, Rene Matic, Charmaine Poh, Laurence Philomene, Clifford Prince King, Zackary Drucker, and Chiffon Thomas.

Installation photography by Object Studios, Individual photography courtesy Fredericks & Freiser Gallery Archives.