Julian Opie

Julian Opie's unique formal language is immediately identifiable and mirrors his artistic fascination with the concept of representation and the mechanisms through which images are perceived and comprehended.  

Biography of Julian Opie

Julian Opie was born in 1958 in London, UK. He attended The Dragon School and later Magdalen College School, Oxford, from 1972 to 1977. He graduated in 1982 from Goldsmiths, University of London, where he studied under the guidance of Michael Craig-Martin.

Opie has showcased his work extensively both in the UK and abroad, with exhibitions at notable venues such as Mango Museum, Lisson Gallery, Kukje Gallery, Galleria Valentina Bonomo, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudeng, and numerous others.

One of Opie's noteworthy commissions was designing an album cover for the British pop band Blur in 2000, earning him a Music Week CADS award for Best Illustration. In 2006, he developed an LED projection for U2's Vertigo world tour, and in 2008, Opie designed a set for Wayne McGregor's ballet Infra at the Royal Opera House in London.

Additionally, in 2010, he received a commission from the National Portrait Gallery in London to create a portrait of the inventor and engineer Sir James Dyson.

Julian Opie's Art Style

Julian Opie's art bears resemblance to pop art, characterized by portraits and animated walking figures depicted with minimal detail in black line drawings, which are signature features of his style. His themes have been characterized by engagement with art history, utilization of new technology, a fascination with the human body, and the exploration of a single idea across various media.

Continuously experimenting with various techniques, ranging from cutting-edge to ancient, Opie innovatively reinterprets the language of everyday life to explore different ways of perception. His minimalist style offers both a visual and spatial encounter with our surroundings. Drawing inspiration from classical portraiture, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Japanese woodblock prints, as well as public signage, information boards, and traffic signs, the artist bridges the clean visual language of contemporary existence with the foundational aspects of art history.