Julian Opie
Since graduating from art school in the early 1980s and bursting onto a pre-Young British Artists art scene in London, Julian Opie has become one of Britain’s most influential living artists. Opie is interested in the figurative, creating objects, films and images of a range of subjects from the real world, each distilled to its essence with a style that pays homage to Pop Art. A major new exhibition, created specifically for NGV International, includes a large selection of Opie’s oeuvre: his renowned single portraits, crowd suites and his ‘walkers’, which through the use of animation recall the famous photographic sequences by Eadweard Muybridge. More than 40 of the artist’s moving-image works will also be on display in the exhibition. Opie will create a separate exhibition for the NGV’s dedicated children’s gallery, featuring a new participatory project, which will give insight into the process of his drawing practice. Responding directly to the architecture of NGV International, Opie will create the largest ever work presented in Federation Court: a city of skyscrapers that stretch all the way up to the glass ceiling. Standing 13 metres high at its tallest point, the work creates an immersive metropolis where visitors can reflect on the urban environment. Julian Opie runs from November 9, 2018 to February 17, 2019 at NGV International.