Julian Opie achieved prominence in the public imagination with his cover art for the Brit-pop phenoms Blur on their 2000 compilation Best of Blur. The illustration, done in Opie's distinctive coloring book style, is a portrait of the quartet in four quadrants, paying an homage to Warhol's prints of Marilyn Monroe and eerily prescient of the iconic silhouettes made famous in the iPod commercials that were to come. Throughout his work in various media, Opie distills images into their essential forms, eliminating all extraneous information, creating seemingly standardized versions of reality.

His bold portraits, subtle landscapes, unconventional wallpaper, playful sculptures of animals, buildings and cars, and computer films present simplified and iconic versions of the contemporary environment. In an interview at London's Tate Modern in 2001, Opie described his style in this way: "I often feel that trying to make something realistic is the one criteria I can feel fairly sure of. Another one I sometimes use is: Would I like to have it in my room? And I occasionally use the idea, if God allowed you to show him one thing to judge you by, would this really be it?"

Opie's sculpture, Sara dancing (sparkly top), an LED (light-emitting diode) monolith measuring 73" high by 43" wide by 10" deep, will be exhibited on the front lawn of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, May 20 through October 1. A continuous computer animation version of Sara dancing can be seen at www.julianopie.com. The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is located at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT. (203) 438-4519; www.aldrichart.org.