Born: London, 1958

Julian Opie embraces the virtual world, focusing attention on the interchange between reality and simulation. He has commented: 'What I would really like to do is make a painting and then walk into it'.

For this exhibition, Opie has grouped large scale vinyl paintings with several life-sized sculptures of figures. The paintings correspond to such traditional genres of art (usually seen in the historical galleries of museums) as portraiture, landscape, still life and the nude. Although they mimic the conventions of high art, these paintings and sculptures also resemble standardised images and objects found in magazines, supermarkets and on the street.

Opie's installation is constructed as a spatial experience, playing with scale, colour and composition. Each image represents a different way of describing space. To encounter Opie's gallery at the outset of Intelligence might heighten the viewer's experience of moving through the whole space of the show. It also suggests the possibility of creating an alternative exhibition, in which the viewer is constantly shifting the point of reference.