The pop art works on Paseo del Borne and in La Lonja look as if they were made just for this city. With his large-format sculptures London artist Julian Opie has attracted a great deal of attention in Palma within days. The characteristic figures, the contours reduced to the absolute essentials, represent urban life and simultaneously seem to merge with it. Like the woman with her cup of coffee who is constantly moving. Or the pedestrians, sometimes carelessly walking by, sometimes actually meeting each other. 

La Lonja

Two sculptures tower over the Gothic building of La Lonja. Julian Opie named the steel giants Julia and Joshua. A man and a woman, standing sideways to each other as if on the lookout. Or looking for orientation. Or maybe there was a fight? And who hasn’t encountered couples whose behavior seems similarly ambivalent.

Inside La Llonja we meet other acquaintances. Black Cap, Blue Jeans, White Hat and Purple Bottle, all captured in one movement, almost in sync and yet unconnected. Like tourists, passers-by in any case. In exciting contrast to them are the four faces made of concrete. Attentive and curious, at peace with themselves. And finally, the metal towers that reach all the way up to the high vaulted ceiling.

Casal Solleric

The counterparts of which can be found in the patio of Casal Solleric. To the sound of bells their profile on large-size fabric panels move gently in the breeze. It almost sounds as if the bells of the neighboring Sant Gaietà church are ringing. A few meters from the hustle and bustle of splendid Es Born, Julian Opie created an oasis of peace.

Just as the cheerfully trotting horse on Passeig de Sagrera is unimpressed by the roaring traffic on the Paseo Marítimo. Like Coffee, Trotting Horse is one of Julian Opie’s surreal LED sculptures. Seemingly spaceless representations in which the figures are in constant flowing motion and yet remain miraculously in place.

The exhibition of Julian Opie in Palma runs until August 31, 2024.