Gerhardsen Gerner

Julian Opie Previous Shows 2013

Julian Opie

 
 
 
 

Julian Opie

Exhibition duration: January 12–April 13, 2013


Gerhardsen Gerner Oslo is delighted to announce its first exhibition with acclaimed British artist Julian Opie (*1958 born in London). The artist is one of the most significant, influential and renowed artists of his generation.

Through his practice he has developed a concise and reductive formal language. Drawing from influences as diverse as billboard signs, sculpture, 17th & 18th Century portraiture, popular comics and classical Japanese woodblock prints, Opie implements computer technology by cutting out the outlines and coloured shapes. This enables him to make two-dimensional explorations of his subjects in silkscreen, vinyl, LCD and LED.

Opie's interest in traditional portraiture, in painting and sculpture, and modern sources, is evident throughout this exhibition at Gerhardsen Gerner.

The exhibition includes an impressive series of the so-called walking figures – unknown passers-by from the streets – which are captured as still images on vinyl and silkscreen. Two of Opie's digitally animated walking figures are displayed on a large LCD screen and LED wall board, also exhibited in the foyer of the gallery; the perfect spot to become part of public life in Tjuvholmen, as it can be seen from outside the gallery.

The subjects of two of the large vinyls which face each other in the main exhibition room remind the viewer of Egyptian friezes as they reveal themselves in an extended line of walkers, captured in the moment, each representing their individuality, movement and physicality. Opie takes the relationship between sculpture and painting further by emphasising the materiality of the imagery, as seen in a beautiful male mosaic portrait Daniel.2012 and in a series of painted female and male busts made of resin, placed on plinths in the same room.
The busts are the result of two immensely exciting sources of modernity and classicism, as they combine the latest technologies using traditional sculptural forms with flat images.

The artist has exhibited nationally and internationally at major institutions and galleries. Recent institutional projects include Solo exhibitions at Lisson Gallery, London (2012), Lisson Gallery, Milan (2011), the Institut Valencià d' Art Modern, Valencia (2010); MAK, Vienna, Austria (2008); Public Art Fund, City Hall Park, New York (2004), and Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (1999). Group shows include City Public Art Space, London (2012); Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany (2011-2012); Barbican, London (2011), and Shanghai Expo, China (2010).

Julian Opie’s work is held in most major museum collections including the National Portrait Gallery, London, The Tate Gallery, London, and MoMA, New York. He has completed major public commissions in cities all over the world such as the recently completed Promenade. (2012), a permanent installation in Calgary, Canada. Three sculptures from his series Caterina dancing naked. are on display in Great St Helen’s Square in London until June 2013. And a large four screen LED sculpture will soon be on display at Sky City, Arlanda Airport, Stockholm for the Clarion Hotel.

For further information please contact Marina Gerner-Mathisen, Gerhardsen Gerner, Oslo: marina@gerhardsengerner.com

or Gerhardsen Gerner, Berlin: T: +49-30-69 51 83 41, F: +49-30-69 51 83 42, 
office@gerhardsengerner.com