Julian Opie at Alan Cristea Gallery, London, 13 Oct - 15 Nov

Exhibition Description:

Julian Opie's new work features linear life-sized images of the pole dancer Shanoza in nine different poses, each divided into three framed panels. His technique involves a unique marriage of silkscreen and flocking, resulting in a rich, black and velvety surface texture to contrast with pure white acrylic support panels - lending a dense and blurred quality to her outline.

Flocking is historically associated with wall coverings that became popular during the reign of Louis XIV of France and its use continues, in various forms, to the present day.

The representaion of Shanoza has been a recurring theme in Opie's work and earlier projects featuring the same subject include lenticular acrylics of Shahnoza dancing Naked and Shahnoza dancing in White Dress. The figure in these works appears to move when viewed from different angles.

This exhibition follows from Opie's major solo exhibitions at MAK (Museum of Contemporary Art) in Vienna and MITO Arts Foundation in Tokyo. It also coincides with the publication of a major new monograph entitled JULIAN OPIE, which includes every area of the artist's work and will be over 800 pages long including installation photographs, source material, studies as well as an exhaustive illustrated back catalogue of his work to date, exclusively distributed in Europe by the Alan Cristea Gallery.

Opie's work will also be on show at the Lisson Gallery concurrently with the Alan Cristea Gallery exhibition.

Description:

Image: Julian Opie, This is Shahnoza in 3 parts 03, 2008. Overall size 78.5 x 137.5 x 3.8 cm From: This is Shahnoza in 3 parts 01-09, 2008. A series of nine three-part flocked acrylic panels, each contained in a sprayed black aluminium frame. Edition of 30 Courtesy the artist and Alan Cristea Gallery

Full Contact Details:

Exhibition at Alan Cristea Gallery, 34 Cork Street, W1