Dance Synced 1-5, 2024

Julian Opie’s Dance Sync portfolio captures his signature visual language—reductive yet highly expressive line and color—applied to the movement of the human body. Consisting of five large-scale screenprints, each rendered in twelve colors on archival museum board, the series presents stylized figures caught mid-motion. Stripped of unnecessary detail, Opie’s figures become universal icons of rhythm and gesture, evoking both the energy of dance and the distilled clarity of digital animation. The use of flat, vibrant fields of color emphasizes repetition and sequence, creating an effect that suggests frames from a looped video, a hallmark of Opie’s practice in translating the dynamics of contemporary life into static yet animated images.

Measuring an impressive 37 ¾ x 59 ½ inches (95.9 x 151.1 cm) each, the prints are monumental in scale, demanding the viewer’s physical engagement with the dancers’ movements. Issued in a signed and numbered edition of 45, the portfolio exemplifies Opie’s ability to merge traditional printmaking techniques with the aesthetics of new media and graphic design. Dance Sync embodies his ongoing interest in the relationship between technology, representation, and perception—where simple outlines and carefully chosen hues conjure an immediate sense of vitality. Through these works, Opie invites viewers to experience dance as both a timeless human expression and a distinctly modern, digitally inflected form.