Julian Opie

Julian Opie (b. 1958) is a contemporary British artist. Opie uses urban and rural landscapes, as well as moving figures, to bring time-honoured artistic genres into the twenty-first century. His works have been realised in a variety of media including silkscreen, vinyl, LCD, LED, lenticular and flocking, and he continues to push the boundaries of ‘traditional’ artistic practice. He draws inspiration from both high art, design and the vernacular; lightbox advertising, billboard signs, Japanese Manga, seventeenth and eighteenth-century portraiture, nineteenth-century silhouettes, Roman busts and ancient Egyptian art.

Julian Opie (b. 1958) is a London-born artist known for his simple, graphic, figurative portraits and landscapes. These works generate a pared-back perspective on contemporary life. The artist’s distinctive, thickly outlined silhouettes take inspiration from classical portraiture, Japanese woodblock prints, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and traffic signs. Opie studied at Goldsmiths’ College and has exhibited in London, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Seoul, and many other cities. Opie’s practice spans painting, drawing, sculpture, and film. His signature ‘walking figures’ and abstracted crowds explore movement, identity, and representations of the self. He is known for his large public installations in cities worldwide, like Tokyo, New York City, and London. Opie has presented recent institutional exhibitions at Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon (2020); F1963, Busan (2018); National Portrait Gallery, London (2017); Suwon Ipark Museum, Suwon (2017); Fosun Foundation, Shanghai (2017); Fundacion Bancaja, Valencia (2017); Krobath Vienna, Austria (2016); Kunsthalle Helsinki (2015); SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo (2014); Holburne Museum, Bath (2013); and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2018). His work can be found in public collections worldwide including Tate, London; British Museum, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Portrait Gallery, London; The Institut Valencià d'Art Modern; Essl Collection, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Japan; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston. His pieces have fetched six-figure prices on the secondary market.