Tall, tanned and with a white shock of hair, Julian Opie can easily pass for a rugged matinee hunk from the ’60s—when metro-sexual was not even a word. He is, however, one of Europe’s most significant Contemporary artists.

Not only has he had 96 solo shows across the globe—in Hungary, Japan, France, Spain, USA, Germany, China, Canada, Italy, New Zealand, France, Turkey, Russia, Poland and Australia—Opie has the distinction of being one of the few artists to receive a Music Week’sCADS award for best illustration of the Blur music jacket, in 2001.

People may have heard more about Damien Hirst, but Opie functions in a different field, one where the realms of popular and fine art intersect. But personally, the artist does not believe in these hierarchies.

Despite his iconic status in the West, he remains accessible as he unwinds at Sakshi Art Gallery in Mumbai, where he is showing for the first time a body of works done over the last three years. This exhibition is a multiple edition of works running up to 50 prints of the same portraits. There are also LCD animations videos up to 200 editions that may be bought for a pretty price. While Hirst is bent on making things precious, with his diamond encrusted skull, Opie is more fascinated by the mass production of images. His work reflects the ability to reproduce images that are patented which is why the works on sale here are priced from Rs 1.75- to Rs 9 lakh, affordable to more than one exclusive collector.

The world of Manga animation, street-signs and computer gaming is of utmost interest to this 58-year-old Londoner. Opie’s crossover approach of distilling ideas and content to the minimum and yet saying so much, has received great acclaim and is reckoned to be highly instrumental in expanding the vocabulary of art.

“I liken myself to a fisherman out with his trawler and net, gathering information. Whether it is the museum or the shopping mall, the street side or the internet the proliferation of images in our world today is just staggering,” says the artist.

In a previous interview, Opie was asked to list his favourite women. He categorically answered, “Talking of women in this manner seems demeaning somehow—like woman is a product to be judged as a male connoisseur. For sure, many people are beautiful, sometimes I think everyone is, other times not.” For this he may be called a feminist, but he still believes that women are meant to be appreciated but in a respectful manner.

“I’ve discovered women make better muses than men. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that I am a man, perhaps not. Actually, one would run out of fingers to count beautiful,

famous models whereas it’s hard to come up with the name of men who fit into the same category,” says Opie who finds Kate Moss and Freida Pinto two of the most attractive women.

Opie has overcome the block of not being able to paint men by getting them to do something when they pose—like putting a guitar in their hands.

Despite his elaborate study of forms through photographs, live-studies and images in mass media, Opie simplifies his images to lines-stick figures and Manga-inspired toon characters that retain the vivacity or character of the sitter. Whether it is an image of a woman dancing, smoking a cigarette or reclining seductively, these figures that are sometimes faceless are filled with life, and to some discerning viewers, eroticism.