Dreaming of Home brings together twenty contemporary artists whose work invokes the comforts and complications of queer and trans domestic life across international and intergenerational perspectives. The exhibition springboards from Catherine Opie’s seminal image Self-Portrait/Cutting (1993), which viscerally highlights the dissonances experienced by queer people, whose desire to live and thrive routinely faces brutal restrictions, and for whom society’s idealization of nuclear family is painfully, somatically borne. In the thirty years since Opie made this photograph, LGBTQIA+ people have experienced rapid and tumultuous legal and social shifts in the United States and globally, demonstrating that, in most geographic and cultural contexts, 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 and trans bodies safe, housed, and free to be themselves? Following in Opie’s footsteps, each artist centralizes the queer body in their work, carving space for themselves and their kin to live and thrive.

Participating artists: Shadi Al-Atallah, Leilah Babirye, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Whiskey Chow, Zackary Drucker and Amos Mac, Nicole Eisenman, Sarah Francis, Jenna Gribbon, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Clifford Prince King, Rene Matić, Sola Olulode, Catherine Opie, Laurence Philomene, Charmaine Poh, Christina Quarles, Ro Roberston, Chiffon Thomas, and Cajsa von Zeipel.

Curated by Gemma Rolls-Bentley.

The exhibition is accompanied by a limited series podcast, Dreaming of Home. Prioritizing artist-centered dialogues, the series dives into the themes of queer home with featured artists in the group exhibition, including Catherine Opie, Jenna Gribbon, Christina Quarles, and Rene Matić, in conversation with Rolls-Bentley and Museum art workers.

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