Kukje Gallery is launching the first official solo exhibition in Korea of the world renowned British artist, Julian Opie. Already famous in Korea for a long time, Opie is an important contemporary pop artist after Andy Warhol. His works of concise and attractive figures are not only exhibited in galleries and art fairs but also distributed in different media such as the internet. His best works include simply drawn full-length figures with a round head that evoke pictograms and half-length portraits of people that the artist knows. His unique style rises from his close relationships in his everyday life and from his carefully selected colors. Thus, his style produces an aesthetic sensibility that the public can readily grasp. This solo exhibition introduces many recent works and will provide the public an invaluable experience to appreciate Opie’s works whose importance is undoubtedly increasing.
Artist Introduction
Julian Opie was born in 1958 in London. He attended Dragon School and Magdalen College, both at Oxford and graduated from Goldsmith’s School of Art, London in 1982. Shortly after graduating, Opie began holding exhibitions at some of the major galleries in Europe. While at Goldsmith’s, he was greatly influenced by his mentors Patrick Caulfield and Michael Craig-Martin. His works are housed at major institutions, such as the Tate Modern, New York Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. Lately, he is carrying out collaborative projects in Europe, United States, and Japan. As the representative leader of contemporary art, Opie is the subject of a documentary series called EYE that deals with contemporary British artists and was included as a major artist in Mary Horlock’s series Modern Art Series, published by Tate Publishing. In addition, the influential art critic, Luisa Buck, who regards him as a leading contemporary artist, has included him in her book, Moving Target, which also deals with leading British contemporary artists.
Explanation of Works
Opie’s early works are mostly three-dimensional and up until the late 80s they adhered to minimalism or neo minimalism. Until 1991, the main subjects of his paintings consisted of quiet landscapes absent of figures. Later, figures with round heads began to appear. Specific individuals began to appear in 1998 when he featured real people such as “Ellen,” the arts administrator and “Paul,” the teacher. As always, these individuals are people that are close to the artist. The works that portray the artist’s close relationships (“Fiona” the artist, “Marco” the student, “Virginia” the housewife, “Bruce” the dancer, etc.) and that proliferate and vary endlessly within the artist’s own system, are reborn as something closely resembling signs. Most recently, Opie has shown more realistic works that feature landscape and individuals. These latest works underscore the artist’s attitude in approaching his subjects and reveal yet another dimension of the artist’s artistic world.
Opie’s works are not only paradoxical because he shows how opposing concepts such as painting and sculpture, the real and the copy, art and design, product and artwork, aesthetic and the everyday express themselves in his works but also experimental because the images that he has created consist of multiple forms that do not pertain to oil painting or sculpture but possess a certain “peculiarity.” Opie usually produces his works by having a computer cut the print or plastic which is then later transferred onto the canvas. The colors are rigorously selected and controlled and they themselves are Opie’s signature. Either the artist or a computer changes the images he has drawn based on photograph of models or landscapes that he has taken himself. The result of such a working process is that the human figure has been reduced to the utmost minimal form and expresses gestures and activities of daily life, such as swimming, walking, and climbing in a simplified style. Opie frequently uses installation art, such as sculpture and LCD and LED screens, to showcase the dynamic images of everyday activities.
Taken as a whole, Opie’s works can be dubbed as “Opie World” for they create a unique world that consists of the most basic elements of our current times. Contrary to its simple appearance, this world consists of elaborate details and the ordinary environment filled with numerous industrial products serves as its background. The public can find his works in calendars, posters, CD covers, screensavers, ads on public buses, magazine covers, public buildings, show windows, and subway and airport passageways. Opie also maximizes the use of media to distribute in the internet and in other public spaces not only still images of his works but also works which combine moving images, animation and sound. His works, made of distinct lines and attractive colors, have become popular and acclaimed images through reproduction in various media. At the same time, many of Opie’s works are surprisingly loyal to the original. Thus, he is “democratic” as well as the most “artistic.” After Andy Warhol, he is one of the most public, talented and representative contemporary artist.
This solo exhibition consists of Opie’s latest works which include two-dimensional works using light boxes, LED visual artworks, LCD visual artworks, and sculptures, a total of thirty works.
