Cargo shorts (from Boston Statuettes) by Julian Opie

Julian Opie (b. 1958) is a British artist internationally known for his bright, simplistic and stylized expression of human figures, animals and landscape. In his distinctive style, he depicts everyday experiences from contemporary life and reduces his surroundings to schematic blocks of colors in constant motion. This work is from Opie’s “Boston Statuettes” series of patinated black bronze sculptures on a Crema Grey stone base that depicts different people in his minimal and graphic aesthetic. For Opie, it is the accessories, such as a hairstyle, clothes or headphones, that are more important than the person’s face and its features. He once noted that when we pass someone on the street we only know their style and their type. This series exemplifies the Opie’s skill in distilling the commonplace experience of life into concise works which still blaze with profundity and emotion.

His work currently resides in The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and others. Opie lives and works in his hometown of London, United Kingdom.