Skip to content
Julian Opie, ‘Julian and Suzanne Walking,’ 2006. Animated LED display. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, purchased with funds provided by Jan and Howard Hendler. Courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum, photo credit Airi Katsuta

Julian Opie digital work returns to stride outside Phoenix Art Museum

Sheila Gibson Stoodley
Sheila Gibson Stoodley
Julian Opie, ‘Julian and Suzanne Walking,’ 2006. Animated LED display. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, purchased with funds provided by Jan and Howard Hendler. Courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum, photo credit Airi Katsuta
Julian Opie, ‘Julian and Suzanne Walking,’ 2006. Animated LED display. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, purchased with funds provided by Jan and Howard Hendler. Courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum, photo credit Airi Katsuta

PHOENIX – Phoenix Art Museum has unveiled the newly restored 2006 digital artwork Julian and Suzanne Walking by British artist Julian Opie. The popular public art installation, commissioned with funds provided by Jan and Howard Hendler, was taken off view in 2019 due to weather-related wear-and-tear and has since been restored by the museum to represent the artist’s original intent. The restoration was made possible through the generosity of Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust’s Now is the Moment Grants Commemoration. Julian and Suzanne Walking is back on view on the east-facing facade of the museum’s south wing.

Born and based in London, Julian Opie (b. 1958-) translates photographs and short films into graphic figurative portraits and landscapes, creating remarkable and distinctive animations that evoke real people and places in their simplest forms. Julian and Suzanne Walking was created through a series of short videos that the artist made of himself and another model walking on treadmills at varying speeds. The footage was plugged into a software system, edited, drawn over, and then reanimated. Despite the minimalistic nature of the work, Opie’s figures display a sense of individual expression, seen by Suzanne’s empowered stride compared to her male companion’s loafing.

First presented at Phoenix Art Museum in 2006, the original installation utilized a digital wall composed of single-strand LED strips, which had to be replaced individually and by hand. The work eventually went off view in 2019, as the dated technology could no longer withstand the harsh Arizona weather conditions, including extreme heat and monsoons. The impact of the pandemic beginning in 2020 further delayed repair of the work. In 2022, PhxArt began restoring the digital artwork in cooperation with Opie and his studio, which included a global search for the appropriate technology needed to ensure the work could withstand the Arizona climate and enjoy a permanent installation as part of the Central Phoenix skyline. The reinstalled work, returned to the museum’s facade, utilizes a new, custom-designed weatherproof LED screen that brings Opie’s vivid and animated scene back to life.