Art21, Featuring Catherine Opie and Others, Premieres + Needs Your Support!

Art21, a non-profit organization that provides access to contemporary art and artists through free multi-media, public engagement and educational initiatives, premiered its sixth season of its Peabody Award-winning public television series, “Art in the Twenty-First Century,” 13 April on PBS. The series features renowned artists like Catherine Opie, Marina Abramovic, and Sarah Sze and runs throughout the spring. 

Be sure to visit Art21's website to show your support—the NEA just cut its funding, so viewership is especially critical at this time.

The four episode sixth season features the following artists:

Episode 1 (“Change”): Catherine Opie, El Anatsui, Ai Weiwei

Episode 2(“Boundaries”): David Altmejd, Tabaimo, Lynda Benglis

Episode 3(“History”): Glenn Ligon, Mary Reid Kelley, Marina Abramovic

Episode 4 (“Balance”): Rackstraw Downes, Robert Mangold, Sarah Sze

To celebrate this award winning series, Art21 has established a four Salon events to screen the episodes followed by a Q+A with featured artists, the latest of which was this past Monday, 12 March, in New York City.

I was fortunate to attend this event and to speak with one of my favorite queer artists, Catherine Opie, who is featured in the first episode and whose photography has held my attention since I first came across it—in my budding lesbian days—while reading Judith Halberstam’s book, Female Masculinity

Here is a clip from her episode "Change":