Julian Opie

Galeria Duarte Sequeira is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by British artist Julian Opie opening on Saturday, 7 November 2020.

With a strong interest in reality, the idea of the representation and the means by which images are perceived and understood, Julian Opie presents a collection of new and recent works in the main gallery space and the Sculpture park that will range in medium from painting and sculpture to LCD screens and LEDs. For the exhibition, Opie will also be presenting a new body of sculptural works produced after his visit to Portugal to draw the Basílica da Estrela and the Sé Catedral de Aveiro. Working with various cutting edge, but also with traditional techniques, he creates and demonstrates a visual and spatial experience.

Drawing on the visual language of contemporary life, Opie’s work is defined by a stripped-down vocabulary of schematic lines. With influences as diverse as billboard signs, contemporary dance, classical portraiture and sculpture, the artist distils his images from the vast but everyday world we encounter, rendering them in his universally recognisable style. Playing upon the tension between a vague and specific reality, he transforms subjects into universal signs while exploring the genre of portraiture.

By observing the world through cities and its people, Opie constructs an environment of abstracted figures that not only represent a portrait of the individuals and society, but simultaneously question our own realities.

Julian Opie (b. London, 1958) is an artist living and working in London. He graduated from Goldsmith’s School of Art, London in 1982. Opie´s work has been presented at CCB Museum, Lisbon, Portugal (2020); Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Japan (2019); Gerhardsen Gerner, Oslo, Norway (2019); The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2018); National Portrait Gallery, London, UK (2017); Suwon Ipark Museum of Art, Korea (2017); Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, China (2017); Fundacion Bancaja, Valencia, Spain (2017); Kunsthalle Helsinki, Finland (2015); Museum of Contemporary Art Krakow (MoCAK), Poland (2014); National Portrait Gallery, London, UK (2011); IVAM, Valencia, Spain (2010); MAK, Vienna, Austria (2008); CAC Malaga, Spain (2006); Neues Museum, Nuremberg, Germany (2003); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2001); Kunstverein Hannover, Germany (1994) and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK (1985). Selected group exhibitions include NGV Triennale, Melbourne, Australia, (2020); Wuzhen International Contemporary Art Exhibition, Wuzhen, China (2019); ‘This Is Not The Reality. What Kind Of Reality?’, 57th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2017); the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK (2016); Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK (2014); Tate Britain, London, UK (2013); the Shanghai Biennale (2006); 11th Biennial of Sydney (1998); documenta 8, Kassel, Germany (1987); and XIIème Biennale de Paris (1985). Selected public projects include ‘Walking in Taipei’, Taipei, Taiwan and ‘Walking in Hong Kong’, Tower 535, Hong Kong (2016); Arendt & Medernach, Luxembourg (2016); Heathrow Terminal 1 (1998); and the prison Wormwood Scrubs, London (1994); as well as public work for hospitals, such as the Lindo Wing, St. Mary’s Hospital, London (2012) and Barts & the London Hospital (2003).