Julian Opie Street 5

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This new series of wall mounted acrylic reliefs, made using the same technique as his earlier Galloping Horses editions, depict a pigeon, gull, duck, hen and magpie, and are now available to purchase. The release of this edition coincides with the launch of Opie’s largest LED based public artwork to date. For the National Gallery Victoria Triennial 2020, Opie created Australian birds., 2020, a series of continuous computer animated birds located on a grass strip between passing traffic in a central area of the city of Melbourne, Australia. To make this work pigeons, gulls, ducks, swamp hens, herons and ibis were filmed in Melbourne before being transformed into the instantly recognisable, universal language of Opie’s art. Several of these depictions appear in Opie’s new edition, Small Birds.Julian Opie is a visual artist of the New British Sculpture movement. Opie emerged as an influential figure in the British art scene of the 1980s producing a series of painted metal sculptures that humorously combined loosely painted imagery with steel shapes. Portraits and animated walking figures, rendered with minimal detail in black line drawing, are hallmarks of the artist's style. His themes have been described as "engagement with art history, use of new technology, obsession with the human body" and "work with one idea across different media”. When asked to describe his approach, Opie said "I often feel that trying to make something realistic is the one criterion I can feel fairly sure of. Another one I sometimes use is, would I like to have it in my room? And I occasionally use the idea, if God allowed you to show Him one [portrait] to judge you by, would this really be it?”

Julian Opie, Street 5, 2020 Street Portfolio, 2020, Signed, Laser-cut museum board relief, presented in a sprayed white frame specified by the artist, Edition 55, 18" x 36 1/2" Framed Size, 18" x 36 1/2" Sheet Size