Julian Opie

By Billie-Jo Ellis ? ? ? He was born in London in 1958, but was raised in Oxford. He is recognised for his distinctive contribution to contempory art over the last 3 decades. He graduated from Goldsmith’s School of Art in 1983. In 2008, the four-sided LED sculpture ‘Ann Dancing’ was installed in Indianapolis, USA, as the first artwork on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. ‘Ann’s’ dress will sway and her arms will move. This is the name given to the work of a group of artists, sculptors and installation artists who began to exhibit together in London in the early 80’s.Many of these were exhibited in the Lisson Gallery. A few examples of artists in the NBS are: Edward Allington; Stephen Cox; Grenville Davey; Anthony Gormley; Julian Opie; Rachel Whiteread; Bill Woodrow and many more. Tim Wood identified 4 major themes in the New British Sculpture movement: ? A synthesis of pop and kitsch. ? A assemblage of the decaying UK urban environment an d the waste of consumer society. ? An exploration of the way in which objects are assigned meanings. A play of colour, wit and humor. I heard about Julian Opie about 2 years ago in school and have liked his work ever since. I like the simplicity of it all, yet he still captures the person in the picture, even his faceless LED work still captures a persona and this is why I like him. I got all my information from own personal knowledge, research on the internet (wikipedia. org and Julianopie. com) and books such as Tate Modern Artists.