Julian Opie

Julian Opie is a British artists, known for his clean, minimal portraits and landscapes.

Julian Opie was born in London in 1958 and raised in Oxford. His father was a well-known economist, who appeared regularly on British television. His mother was a teacher. 

He attended The Dragon School, a private preparatory school and then Magdalen College School in Oxford. His parents encouraged his interest in art and Opie was stretching his own canvases at home and experimenting with abstract painting when he was as young as ten.

Opie won his first art prize when he was twelve, submitting a sculpture he made from a bar of soap in the style of British sculptor, Henry Moore.

He attended the Chelsea School of art and then transferred to the Goldsmith’s School of Art in London.

At Goldsmith’s Opie was taught by conceptual artist Michael Craig-Martin, who had a profound influence on the Young British Artist group, which included Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. Opie worked as an assistant to Craig-Martin while at Goldsmith’s. He graduated in 1983, the same year that he exhibited his folded steel sculptures, along with works by Keith Haring and Amish Kapoor at the Lisson Gallery. He had his first solo show at the Lisson Gallery the following year, and has been showing there ever since.

By the mid-1980s, Opie’s works were beginning to attract international attention. He began to use computer software to create images inspired by video game graphics. In 1995, Opie was awarded a Sargant Fellowship at the British School in Rome, the following year he was given a Residency at the Atelier Calder in Sache, France.

His interest in Old Masters portraiture led him to explore the relationship that exists between the artist and subject. He began to show his portraits and was commissioned  to do portraits, for which he charged £25,000 (about $31,000) to the model and nearly twice that for the finished piece.

In 2001, Music Week gave Opie the Best Illustration Award for his album cover for the British band Blur.

Opie’s works have expanded to include include LED animation. His own works have a very modern feel but, surprisingly, are based on Opie’s fascination with 17th and 18th century paintings, ancient Egyptian and Roman sculptures and Chinese and Japanese art, all of which he collects.

Opie lives and works in London. He and his wife, Aniela, have a son and three daughters. He has a team of about twelve people assisting him in his East London studio.

Julian Opie’s works can be found in public art collections around the world, including the Tate, the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert, the National Portrait Gallery in London, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the ICA in Boston, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh,  the Essl Collection in Vienna, the IVAM in Spain, the Berardo Collection Museum in Lisbon, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and the Takamatsu City Museum of Art in Japan.