Julian Opie

London

For over three decades, Julian Opie has pushed the boundaries of portraiture, painting, and sculpture, seeking to break down what he believes to be illogical barriers between the disciplines. No doubt, he is one of the leading figures in contemporary art, who has developed a unique formal language that combines the vernacular of everyday life with motifs inspired by art history. His restless fascination with and desire to utilise new techniques have long been supported by Alan Cristea, a gallerist focused on developing enduring and successful partnerships between artists and creative fabricators.

Opie takes the physical world as the starting point for his artistic practice, be it nature or human beings, which he first captures through an innovative drawing process using a camera and computer technology as his tools. Opie draws under and over digital photographs he takes from nature, creating multi-layered images with great depth. The highly distinctive depictions of the modern world that arise from this process juxtapose modern and classic sources, examining the nature of representation through a variety of media, including silkscreen, granite, and computer animation. Past works have seen Opie draw from influences as diverse as billboard signs, 18th-Century portraiture, popular comics and Japanese woodblock prints.

The exhibition at the Alan Cristea Gallery is an extension of the artist’s recent film Winter. (2012) and sees him blend a similarly eclectic range of influences, from Google Maps Street View to 17th-Century Dutch landscape painting. Opie presents 75 prints laminated to glass, representing 75 sequential steps on a circular walk taken by the artist through the French countryside on a harsh but beautiful winter’s day.

Julian Opie

Alan Cristea Gallery

February 14 – March 16, 2013
31 & 34 Cork Street
London W1S 3NU
UK

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