An iconic kinetic work by British sculptor Julian Opie, commissioned as a permanent artwork for the National Gallery of Victoria’s famed moat.
Julian Opie (b. 1958, London, UK) is a sculptor, painter, printmaker and installation artist. Between 1972 and 1982 he attended Goldsmiths College where he studied under Michael Craig-Martin. During the early 1980s Opie became associated with a generation of sculptors known as New British Sculpture, a group that included artists Anish Kapoor, Rachel Whiteread, Richard Wentworth and Tony Cragg. In recent years he has received major commissions for murals for public spaces and buildings, including Lindo Wing, St Mary’s Hospital, London (2012) and Central Station, Milan (2003). In 1995 Opie was awarded the Sargent Fellowship at the British School in Rome and the Spanish Art Critics Association (AECA) Award, ARCOmadrid, in 2015. Opie was part of the 1998 Sydney Biennale and the subject of a solo retrospective exhibition at NGV International in 2018, curated by Dr Simon Maidment.
Julian Opie
Peeing boy (Fountain)., 2018
steel, bronze, water
350.0 × 115.9 × 5.0 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by Michael and Emily Tong, and NGV Foundation, 2020