Julian Opie is a visual artist, and one of the New British Sculpture

New British Sculpture

New British Sculpture is the name given to the work of a group of artists, sculptors and installation artists who began to exhibit together in London, England, in the early 1980s, including Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon and Richard Wentworth....

 movement.
Julian Opie was raised in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, England, where he attended the Dragon School

Dragon School

The Dragon School is a British coeducational, preparatory school in the city of Oxford, founded in 1877 as the Oxford Preparatory School, or OPS. It is primarily known as a boarding school, although it also takes day pupils...

 and Magdalen College School

Magdalen College School, Oxford

Magdalen College School is an independent school for boys aged 7 to 18 and girls in the sixth form, located on The Plain in Oxford, England. It was founded as part of Magdalen College, Oxford by William Waynflete in 1480....

. He attended Goldsmith's School of Art in London from 1979-82. He then attended Chelsea College of Art and became a teacher.

In his portraiture, the human face is sometimes characterised by black outlines with flat areas of colour, and minimalised detail, to the extent that an eye can become just the black circle of the pupil, and sometimes a head is represented by a circle with a space where the neck would be, Opie tries to portray someone's personality in as little detail as possible.

Opie uses computers in art for other works.