Julian Opie (Tate Modern Artists)

Perhaps more than any artist of his generation, Julian Opie (b. 1958) has taken his art beyond the gallery walls and out into the mainstream of cultural life, testing his ideas in a multitude of different mediums. This is the first publication to offer a complete and highly illustrated survey of his career and work: from the early figurative painted metal sculptures, through 3-D evocations of European highway travel and urban high-rise buildings, to his recent cool graphic style, which has been seen on billboards and in large-scale site-specific wall paintings.

Mary Horlock’s text explores the way Opie’s unique, trademark visual vocabulary has developed, and her interview with him reveals much about the motivation and vision of this most individual of artists at an important point in his career.