Julian Opie

Julian Opie was born in London in 1958. He studied at Goldsmiths College, London, from 1979 to 1982. 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.

In 2001 Opie was awarded Music Week CADS, Best Illustration award for his album cover design for Best of Blur. The instantly recognisable, universal language of his art is presented in private and public commissions all over the world including Narita Airport, Tokyo (2018); Tower 535, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (2016); Arendt and Medernach, Luxembourg (2015); The Lindo Wing, St Mary's Hospital, London (2012); Regent's Place, London (2011); Seoul Square, South Korea (2009); and Dublin City Gallery (2008).

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.

Cristea Roberts Gallery is the exclusive worldwide publisher of Julian Opie's editions. 

Julian Opie lives and works in London.