Contemporary Artist Julian Opie Lectures at Herron

Julian Opie's public installations will be on display in Indianapolis as of September 27, 2006.

INDIANAPOLIS – The Herron School of Art and Design welcomes London-based contemporary artist Julian Opie to speak about his artwork and the opening of his largest public exhibition.

The lecture will be in the Frank and Katrina Basile Auditorium at 7 p.m. on September 27. It is free and open to the public. A public reception will follow.

“Julian Opie: Signs,” a public art exhibition featuring ten installations, many of them new works, opens citywide September 27. The artworks will remain on display in various locations in the city for one year. Opie creates drawings from his photographic portraits of fashion, music, and racing icons, as well as people and landscapes from everyday life. His use of stylized and standardized forms, such as the shapes and colors used in children’s wooden animal blocks, provide the viewer with an opportunity to access their own imagination and memories. The drawings are brought to life using advertising technology and sign making techniques.

Opie’s art promises to create a bold visual contrast to the Indianapolis cityscape. An electrically lit, towering image of Canadian rocker Bryan Adams will rise 16 1/2 feet high in White River State Park, while the city center will host a series of glass and metal sculptures of fashion models. A sky bridge over a busy thoroughfare will be wrapped with the vinyl artwork entitled “Christine Swam Amongst the Fishes”, while two LED sculptures – one of a man, one of a woman – will be walking with pedestrians on two well-traveled city corners and a four-sided LED entitled “Sara Dancing” debuts on a busy intersection.

Julian Opie’s lecture is sponsored in part by the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation. “Julian Opie: Signs” is a project of Public Art Indianapolis, a program of the Arts Council of Indianapolis supported by the Indianapolis Cultural Development Commission.