julian opie exhibition
SCAI the bathhouse, tokyo
october 16th to november 14th, 2009


'antonia with yellow shawl', 2008
ink jet on canvas with ebonized pear wood frame
120 x 83.9 cm

julian opie began painting portraits over a decade ago, his first subjects being those who were
close to him - friends and family - and later commissions from art collectors and others.
his style simplifies his subject's characteristics with a neutral almost emotionless facial expression,
in which he has created a series of portraits that evoke a sense of real existence of his subjects
which have now become his most-known pieces.

taking his portraits a step further he developed a new genre, 'moving portraits' along with his
'people' series which depict the same figures seen in his portraits but using simply fabricated faces,
arranged in various acts of walking, dancing or posing. more recently, he has begun exploring
the vocabulary found in 17th and 18th century english and dutch portraits, combined with
new positions of his subjects against different landscapes.

in this, opie's third solo exhibition at SCAI, the focus will be on these new portraits along with
paintings and video works featuring images of walking women.


'ika in a red dress', 2009
computer film -52" LCD screen - PC
125.5 x 75 x 12.5 cm
edition of 4


'tina walking 4', 2009
vinyl on wooden stretcher
222 x 110.1 cm