Julian Opie

Internationally acclaimed as one of the most resourceful and engaging younger artists in Britain, Julian Opie has been exhibiting his diverse work since the early 1980s, and has steadily gained a reputation stretching from Europe to Japan and the United States. He first established himself with painted steel sculptures of ordinary objects - typewriters, books, food, luggage - and of Old Master canvases. Since then, he has worked in a proliferation of styles: colourful abstract sculptures; mysteriously pseudo-functional objects resembling air vents, light boxes and lavatory cubicles; space-filling wood constructions with cryptic titles. His latest pieces feature subjects from austere acrylic paintings and concrete models of motorways to miniature houses, castles and fortifications. Published on the occasion of a major exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, this comprehensive publication on Opie illustrates each phase of his career, with large-scale colour reproductions of many works, together with preparatory sketches and models and comparative illustrations. Five commentators on modern art examine all aspects of his work and provide a complete aesthetic context for this eclectic, original artist.