Julian Opie
Opie reduces faces to a handful of lines. His portraits strip away everything except the minimum needed to convey identity: a simplified outline, flat colour, no shading, no detail. The approach borrows from road signs, fire-exit pictograms, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Japanese woodblock prints. He has cited fire-exit signage as an example of the reductive visual language he pursues.
Biography
He was born in London in 1958 and studied at Goldsmiths School of Art from 1979 to 1982, tutored by Michael Craig-Martin, who also taught Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. In 2000, he designed the cover for Blur's Best of Blur, creating digital drawings of each band member reduced to a handful of essential lines. The image won Music Week's Best Illustration award and made him widely known outside the gallery world.
He works across silkscreen, vinyl, LCD screens, LED displays, lenticular prints, and flocking. His LED figures, built from grids of dots, recall Lichtenstein's Ben Day dots. His walking-figure animations run as continuous loops on LCD screens. The vinyl works and LED pieces are among the most commercially recognisable contemporary art objects in circulation.
Timeline
- 1958Born in London, England. Spent part of his childhood in Oxford before returning to London for his education.
- 1982Graduated from Goldsmiths College in London at the age of 24. His early painted steel sculptures attracted immediate gallery interest.
- 1997Began developing his signature flat-colour, black-outline portrait style at the age of 39, reducing human figures to their most essential forms using computer software.
- 2001Designed the cover artwork for Blur's "Best Of" album at the age of 43, bringing his stripped-back portrait style to a mass audience across the UK.
- 2006Installed a series of LED walking figures on the facade of the City of London Information Centre at the age of 48. The animated public sculptures became a fixture of the city's streetscape.
- 2008Exhibited "Winter" at the Lisson Gallery in London at the age of 50, a major solo show combining landscape lenticular panels with his walking figure animations.
- 2017Presented a large-scale solo exhibition at the Fosun Foundation in Shanghai at the age of 59, marking the growing international reach of his work across Asia.
Notable Works
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Where to See Julian Opie
2 museums worldwide.
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2 works
British Council
London, United Kingdom
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1 works
National Galleries Scotland
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Next stop
Contemporary →
Explore the artists and ideas of Contemporary.
Related Artists
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is julian opie still alive?
Yes, Julian Opie is still alive (born 1958).Where did julian opie study?
Julian Opie studied at Goldsmiths School of Art from 1979 to 1982.Who was julian opie influenced by?
The biography mentions that Opie borrows from road signs, fire-exit pictograms, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Japanese woodblock prints.When was julian opie born?
Julian Opie was born in 1958 in United Kingdom.
Sources
Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Julian Opie.
- [1] museum National Galleries Scotland Used for: museum holdings.
- [2] museum British Council Used for: museum holdings.
- [3] book guggenheim-rroseisr00bles Used for: biography.
- [4] book Alastair Sooke, Pop Art Used for: biography.
- [5] book Sooke, Alistair, Pop Art Una storia a colori Used for: biography.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-09-30. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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