Winter. An extension of the artist's recent film Winter (2012) and sees him blend a similarly eclectic range of influences, from Google Maps Street View to 17th-Century Dutch landscape painting.
The Alan Cristea Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition of works by Julian Opie from
14 February - 16 March 2013, at 34 Cork Street. The show will comprise all-new original
editions from Opie’s series Winter. and marks fifteen years of close collaboration between
the artist and Alan Cristea. The Alan Cristea Gallery is the worldwide exclusive publisher of
Julian Opie's limited edition prints and animations.
One of the leading figures in contemporary art, for over three decades Julian Opie has
pushed the boundaries of portraiture, painting, and sculpture, seeking to break down what
he believes to be illogical barriers between the disciplines. He has developed a unique
formal language that combines the vernacular of everyday life with motifs inspired by art
history. His restless fascination with and desire to utilise new techniques have long been
supported by Alan Cristea, a gallerist focused on developing enduring and successful
partnerships between artists and creative fabricators.
Opie takes the physical world as the starting point for his artistic practice, be it nature or
human beings, which he first captures through an innovative drawing process using a
camera and computer technology as his tools. Opie draws under and over digital
photographs he takes from nature, creating multi-layered images with great depth.
The
highly distinctive depictions of the modern world that arise from this process juxtapose
modern and classic sources, examining the nature of representation through a variety of
media, including silkscreen, granite, and computer animation. Past works have seen Opie
draw from influences as diverse as billboard signs, 18th-Century portraiture, popular comics
and Japanese woodblock prints.
The exhibition at the Alan Cristea Gallery is an extension of the artist’s recent film Winter.
(2012) and sees him blend a similarly eclectic range of influences, from Google Maps Street
View to 17th-Century Dutch landscape painting. Opie presents 75 prints laminated to glass,
representing 75 sequential steps on a circular walk taken by the artist through the French
countryside on a harsh but beautiful winter’s day.
Echoing the poetic ambience of the film,
the exhibition is accompanied by the film’s specially commissioned score written by Paul
Englishby (award winning composer for An Education and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day)
and featuring vocals by the artist’s wife, Aniela Opie.
Each panel measures 68 x 121 cm and is in an edition of three, with an additional artist’s
proof of each work. The use of lamination to glass references the architectural use of glass
generally within the public realm and specifically within in Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5.
The
gallery walls will be almost completely panelled in glass for the exhibition, creating a
surrounding panorama that is at once a pastoral landscape and a slick architectural surface.
Viewed together, the panels also correspond to each still from Opie’s film, enabling the
viewer to explore the elegiac journey over and over again.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a flip book illustrating all of the landscapes thereby
allowing the reader to reanimate the circular walk. Copies of this book will be available to
purchase through Opie’s online shop www.julianopieshop.com.
About the artist
Julian Opie (b. 1958) lives and works in London. Solo exhibitions include National Portrait
Gallery, London, UK (2011); Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, Spain (2010); MAK,
Vienna, Austria (2008); Kivik Art Centre, Osterlen, Sweden (2009); Museum Kampa, Prague,
Czech Republic (2007); Public Art Fund City Hall Park, New York, US (2004); and Ikon
Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2001). His work can be found in many public collections worldwide
including the Victoria & Albert Museum, British Museum, Tate Gallery, and MoMA. In 2001
Opie was awarded Music Week CADS, Best Illustration award for his album cover design for
Best of Blur. More information and can be found at www.julianopie.com.
Press Contacts:
Toby Kidd and Amy Sutcliffe
toby@pelhamcommunications.com
amys@pelhamcommunications.com
+ 44 20 8969 3959
Opening to public: 14 February 2013
Alan Cristea Gallery
31 Cork Street, London
Hours: 10am-5.30pm Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm Sat
Free Admission