Julian Opie

Julian Opie, born in 1958 in London, is a British contemporary artist. His studio is located in London's Shoreditch district.

Julian Opie grew up in Oxford. He studied at the Dragon School and Magdalen College School, Oxford, and later graduated from Goldsmiths College. His early success with galleries inspired younger artists like Damien Hirst to follow in his footsteps.

His work, inspired in part by Patrick Caulfield and Michael Craig-Martin , involves the reduction (by computer) of photographs into figurative reproductions. In his portraits , the face is characterized by broad black lines, flat areas of color and minimal details, reducing the eye to the black circle of the pupil.

His series "Imagine You Are…" shows how activities like driving, walking, or climbing can be represented through simple reductions. Opie also uses sculptures and light installations to present everyday objects.

The public was introduced to Julian Opie's style in 2000 through his cover for Blur's Best of album, or during the Vertigo world tour of the Irish rock band U2, for which he created visuals of walking characters, projected onto the giant screens on stage.