Exhibition - Julian Opie
Lisson Gallery
Exhibition: 19 November 2022 – 26 March 2023
Julian Opie. Dance 1 step 1, 2022
Vinyl on aluminum stretcher, 230 x 381 x 3.5 cm
Courtesy of the Artist & Lisson Gallery
Lisson Gallery's new Beijing space presents its first Julian Opie exhibition. Opie, a leading contemporary artist, presents his new work from 2022. His new work accents his new innovative techniques and features his most iconic motifs, such as landscape and animated dancers on new formats such as vinyl. Opie’s inspiration is clear in his work featuring urban contemporary experiences. The exhibition marks Opie’s second solo exhibition with Lisson Gallery in China, following his 2020 presentation at the gallery's Shanghai space.
Opie has mastered his own distinct pictorial language following years of practice in painting, creating sculptures and doing large-scale public works on a diverse range of mediums. This language depicts his observation of his surroundings and represents the symbolic visual of his experience. Opie is not interested in photographic documentation of moments, but in capturing the full picture of his current reality.
The exhibition includes a series of reclining stainless steel figurines, inspired by ancient wooden tribal statues from Southeast Asia, and is on display at the South Gallery in the Beijing area. In an adjacent space, visitors can experience a series of characters dancing in Tik-Tok-inspired routines, presented in motion and static form.
The individual steps of the dancing routine are also captured in a series of vinyl and mosaic images that accompany the animation. The shape and color of these vinyl figures refer to certain modern clothing, such as the winter nylon ski suit found on the ski slopes.
Opie constantly explores and plays with different techniques and perspectives by reinterpreting the experience and surroundings of his everyday life. Influenced by classical portraiture, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Japanese colored woodblock prints, public signs, information panels, and traffic signs, Opie combines a distinct visual language of contemporary life with the foundations of art history. Opie is internationally recognized for his distinctive and refined drawing style as his synthesis of Pop Art, Minimalism and popular graphic design provides a particular oeuvre which is distinctly of its time.
About:
Julian Opie (b. 1958, London, England) is a British sculptor and artist living and working in London, England. He graduated from Goldsmith’s School of Art, London in 1982. There he studied with conceptual artist Michael Craig Martin and began experimenting with paint on steel. He continued to develop his technique, expanding his materials, creating paintings and installations in which bold lines dominate. Despite his considerable minimalism, his figures appear to be gestural, allowing for a new vision of disconnected digital-age portraiture. Opie’s work featured in many exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum in Wolfsburg, Germany, the Barbican in London (2014), the Shanghai Expo in China (2017), the Lisson Gallery in Milan and the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, among others. He has been commissioned for high profile projects including the 2000 album cover design for the British musical group Blur, which earned him a Music Week CADS award, an LED projection for U2’s Vertigo world tour in 2006 and a 2008 set design for the Royal Opera House’s Infra ballet. In addition to his commercial success, he was granted the 1995 Sargent Fellowship at the British School in Rome. His works can be found in the permanent collections of major institutions including the Tate, the Museum of Modern Art, the ICA Boston, the Arts Council and the British Council in London and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Lisson Gallery
Lisson Gallery is located in Beijing
4/F, Building D7, Yard No.3, Jinhang East Road
Beijing
E: contact@lissongallery.cn
Sources:
https://www.lissongallery.com/
https://www.julianopie.com
