Julian Opie was born in London in 1958, and studied at Goldsmiths College of Art from 1979 – 1982. He lives and works in London. Opie has exhibited widely both in Britain and internationally, with recent solo exhibitions including: Kunsthalle Helsinki, 2015; Museum of Contemporary Art Krakow, 2014; National Portrait Gallery, London, 2011; IVAM, Valencia, 2010; MAK, Vienna, 2008; CAC Malaga, 2006; Neues Museum, Nuremburg, 2003; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 2001; Kunstverein Hannover, 1994 and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 1985.

Julian Opie works with a distinct style that results from digital manipulation, creating images with distinct black outlines and areas of simplified colour. His work is reminiscent of Minimal and Pop art as well as billboard signs, comics and Japanese woodblock prints. Opie uses using a vast array of media and technologies including silkscreen, vinyl, LCD, LED and lenticular and he continues to push the boundaries of ‘traditional' artistic practice.

Opie’s graphic portraiture style and use of computer aided design has seen him move easily between the fields of contemporary art and commercial design. In 2000 he was commissioned to design the cover of an album for British band Blur, and in 2006 created an LED projection for U2’s Vertigo world tour.

View from my Bedroom Window shows a landscape moving from day into night into day again in a continuous 48 second loop of computer animation. Opie says of his way of working with digital tools: ‘People often assume that the starting point is a photograph but this is not the case. The stating point is an observation of the real world or sometimes an idea inspired by someone else's artwork... I use photography as a notebook and a mirror to bring the images and the information into my studio and onto my computer screen. My screen then becomes a window, a mirror, a telescope and a video recorder.
Share this