National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne opens 'Julian Opie' exhibition
9 November 2018
The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, has opened their major exhibition, ‘Julian Opie’, that features over 60 works by the world-renowned British artist. Comprised of new and recent work, including silkscreen prints, acrylic panels, LCD screen animations and large-scale sculpture, the exhibition responds specifically to NGV International’s various exhibition spaces, with a focus on Opie’s observations of human life from the streets of Melbourne itself.Always exploring different techniques, both cutting edge and ancient, Opie plays with ways of seeing through reinterpreting the vocabulary of everyday life; his reductive style evokes both a visual and spatial experience of the world around us. The exhibition depicts the range of now familiar subjects in what Opie describes as the “limited number of words or letters in an alphabet” in this vocabulary – such as looped animations of sea and cityscapes, walking passers-by, swimming koi carp – alongside ambitious site-specific projects. Skyscrapers in Opie’s signature style have been built to the full height of the glass ceiling at NGV’s Federation Court space, while the animated koi carp now greet visitors as they swim behind a wall of water at the exhibition’s entrance.
‘Julian Opie’ runs until 17 February 2019.
