Julian Opie Earphones (from Boston Statuettes) For Sale

About this work

Julian Opie has established himself as one of the most influential British artists of his generation, recognized internationally for his distinctive approach to figuration that distills the human form into essential lines and flat planes of color. His work occupies a unique position between fine art and public accessibility, drawing from sources as varied as classical portraiture, Japanese woodblock prints, road signage, and digital animation. Opie's pieces are held in major institutional collections worldwide, including the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Earphones, from the Boston Statuettes series of 2020, translates Opie's characteristic reductive visual language into three-dimensional form. The work depicts a solitary walking figure, rendered in patinated black bronze and mounted on a Crema Grey stone base. This series extends Opie's longstanding investigation into the anonymous urban pedestrian—figures absorbed in private worlds while moving through shared public space. The inclusion of earphones signals contemporary life's mediated experience, a subtle commentary on isolation within proximity that has defined much of Opie's sculptural output. The patinated bronze surface creates a striking silhouette effect, emphasizing the tension between the figure's physical presence and its schematic abstraction. At just over twenty-one inches in height, this edition of twenty-five offers collectors an intimate scale that retains the monumental quality of Opie's larger public commissions. The work demonstrates the artist's continued relevance in examining how we represent and perceive the human figure in an increasingly digitized world. For acquisition inquiries, please contact Guy Hepner.