Julian Opie “MAK”

“I try to find a universal symbol for every individual.” Julian Opie

With his signature pictorial language, a style that has been honed by comic strips, Julian Opie (*1958 in London) has been one of the most important protagonists of contemporary British art for more than two decades. From the very beginning, he inventively worked at an expansion of artistic means of expression: he transgressed the boundary between the genres of painting and sculpture by, for example, applying paint to the everyday articles he used in his steel objects. In his experiments with digital image technologies, the artist frees himself from classic supports and finds—on postcards, stickers, and album covers—direct access to the field of the applied arts. For the last several years, he has also been producing moving images, which are often generated by means of LCD and LED technologies.

This publication, which includes color illustrations throughout, assembles a representative collection of portraits, half-length figures, a new series utilizing motifs from baroque portraits, and new drawings on this theme.

Exhibition schedule: MAK Vienna, June 11–September 21, 2008