Lisson Gallery opens Julian Opie's first solo gallery exhibition in New York City

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, March 29, 2024


Lisson Gallery opens Julian Opie's first solo gallery exhibition in New York City
Installation view of Julian Opie at Lisson Gallery, New York (1 March – 20 April 2019)
© Julian Opie. Courtesy Lisson Gallery.



NEW YORK, NY.- For Julian Opie’s first solo gallery exhibition in New York City, Lisson Gallery presents a new body of work focused on the artist’s portraits, presenting both individual heads and full-length groups. As Opie’s first presentation in Manhattan since his major Public Art Fund commission in City Hall Park in 2004, this presentation captures the people and daily routines that make up life in communities around New York City.

Over the years Opie has quietly observed the homogenisation of the world in cities and the people around him – from friends to strangers on the street – to produce portraits of individuals and society. Whether recreating a skyscraper, a serene landscape on the Cornish coast, or a selection of runners in a city park, Opie constructs an environment, a space that echoes the colours and shapes he observes. Fascinated by the act of picturing, and how that influences our ability to navigate and interact with the world, the artist’s portraits have become ubiquitous in locations across the globe.

The exhibition includes four individual portraits, all in profile, composed of auto paint on aluminium: Pony Tail., Hoodie., Diamond earring. and Dark Glasses. (all 2019). Despite the simplicity of the portraits, Opie’s process involves building up rather than reducing, beginning with one aluminium layer and adding onto the surface to shape the form, resulting in a three-dimensional, semi-sculptural object. Each figure, oscillating between figuration and abstraction, is embodied through one singular characteristic, be it their hairstyle, jewellery or clothing. A realist painter, Opie captures not the accuracy of a photograph, but the realism of a memory, a glance, or a feeling; each character’s identity determined by the artist’s intangible experience or memory of the encounter.

Along the opposite wall are four group portraits, each featuring five individuals walking: Walking in New York 1., 2., 3., and 4. (all 2019). This body of work, based on photographs of specific scenes in neighbourhoods across New York, presents a snapshot of life in the city. Surrounded by abstracted figures, these portraits are at once distinctly individual and yet universal, recalling the anonymity omnipresent in modern city life. Opie echoes the arrangement and rhythmic movement of Greek vases and stone-carved Roman friezes, bringing these traditions into the modern-day – just as an ancient frieze mural would depict the identity of a warrior through their sword or valiant pose, Opie characterises each individual through a specific stance, adornment, attire or attitude.

The exhibition also features three life-size, patinated bronze sculptures standing in the gallery amongst the paintings. In each figure represented in Leather Jacket., Hoodie. and Two Bags. (all 2019), the viewer instinctively builds a narrative around the character, recalling typical scenes from metropolitan life, from a man smoking casually, perhaps at a bus stop or waiting for a friend, to a woman travelling home with shopping bags, aimlessly checking her phone. Familiar yet unnervingly distant, these figures highlight questions about our own reality – as individuals and as a society – and prompt us to ask, what object or pose would we choose to characterise our existence?










Today's News

March 24, 2019

Exhibition turns up trove of looted Nazi art in Louvre

First exhibition devoted to iconoclasm in ancient Egypt opens in St. Louis

First-class diamonds lead Sotheby's Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite Spring Sale

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World presents 'Hymn to Apollo: The Ancient World and the Ballets Russes'

Nationalmuseum Sweden acquires three works by English miniaturists

The Beatles in Liverpool Auction heads to Julien's Auctions May 9

Glenstone announces works by Ellsworth Kelly, Kerry James Marshall, and Charles Ray on view this spring

Mexico's 'voladores' seek to keep ancestors' flying spirit alive

Carpenters Workshop Gallery opens exhibition of works by the Campana Brothers

The Broad presents West Coast debut of 'Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983'

International group exhibition puts Europe and the EU on the agenda this spring at Kunsthal Charlottenborg

Sala:GAM presents Jonathan Miralda Fuksman

Trustees and deCordova receive unanimous vote of approval to move forward with plans for integration

Bonhams announces Marc Sands as Chief Marketing Officer

Ocean Space's inaugural program features large-scale installation by artist Joan Jonas

Extra City Kunsthal exhibition presents works by artists engaging with a broad understanding of the toxic

Galerie Fons Welters presents works by Kasper Bosmans, Mariana Castillo Deball, and Jennifer Tee

Lisson Gallery opens Julian Opie's first solo gallery exhibition in New York City

Exhibition presents work by three artists who each respond to pressing ecological concerns

PROYECTOSMONCLOVA opens an exhibition of works by Julius Heinemann

Group exhibition showcases multidisciplinary artworks created by international female art leaders

First major solo museum exhibition of Jonas Wood opens exclusively at the Dallas Museum of Art

Lily Agius Gallery opens a new solo exhibition of works by American realist painter SJ Fuerst

Boulder-sized sunfish washes ashore in Australia

Some important things to know about electronic cigarette kit

Keeping fit in Venice - cycling, jogging and walking




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful