Julian Opie and the evolving language of pictogram people

From the AD HOC NEWS Art Desk » Work Series & Retrospective Desk - The editors cover exhibitions, auctions, collections, prizes and artistic positions. Published: June 27, 2026 · Last checked: June 27, 2026, 10:06 PM

Julian Opie is one of the key figures in contemporary figurative minimalism, known for his flat, stylized portraits and walking figures. His work series have become instantly recognizable in museums, public space and private collections, forming a sustained exploration of how few lines are needed to depict a person.

Iconic walking figures and portraits

One of Julian Opie’s most widely known work series is the group of animated walking figures, often presented on LED screens or light boxes as endlessly looping sequences that depict commuters, families or solitary walkers moving across a neutral ground. These works reduce bodies to contour lines and flat color areas, yet retain enough rhythm and detail to suggest individual gait, clothing and attitude. They can be seen as descendants of public pictograms, translated into the language of contemporary art.

Alongside these animated sequences, Opie has developed an extensive series of portraits that strip faces to essential features paired with saturated backgrounds. In these works, mouths and eyes are reduced to simple shapes, hairstyles become contour silhouettes, and clothing is indicated through clear blocks of color. The result is a group of portraits that oscillate between recognizability and archetype, inviting viewers to project identity despite the radical simplification of detail.

Landscape, architecture and urban motion

Beyond figures, Julian Opie has repeatedly returned to landscape and urban scenes as recurring work groups. In series focusing on motorways, city streets or countryside vistas, he uses flat digital rendering and crisp lines to depict traffic flows, buildings and tree lines as diagrammatic compositions. Cars, road signs and facades become reduced visual elements in a rhythmically structured field.

In several groups of works, Opie translates these landscapes into LED animations, where cars move along highways or pedestrians cross stylized intersections in continuous motion. The emphasis lies on repetition and flow rather than narrative, turning everyday infrastructure into a visual pattern that echoes data streams and studio-made loops. These series extend his interest in how contemporary life can be compressed into minimal visual information while remaining legible.

The work core in series

Julian Opie works primarily with painting, digital print, LED installation and sculpture, iterating motifs over long periods to build coherent series. Beginning in the 1980s, he explored simplified architectural forms; by the late 1990s and early 2000s, the portrait and walking-figure groups had solidified as central strands in his practice.

These work groups function almost like modules: a portrait can exist as a painting, a vinyl on aluminum, a screen-based image or a public commission, while remaining part of a larger sequence. The same applies to motorway scenes and city streets, which reappear across formats, sizes and contexts. Collectors and institutions often acquire individual works that are clearly situated within a specific series, underscoring how seriality shapes the perception of his oeuvre.

Where the artist stands now

Julian Opie’s studio continues to develop new iterations of his established series, extending the range of walking figures, portraits and urban landscapes while adapting formats and technologies.

This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.