Artist Spotlight: Exploring The Art of Opake

At Grove Gallery, you can find artwork from a wide range of artists, including the likes of Banksy, Andy Warhol, Picasso, and Opake. Opake is a popular graffiti artist who creates eye-catching, bold artwork - known for depicting classic cartoon characters in his unique style.

But who exactly is Opake? What’s his story? And more importantly, what does his artwork look like? That’s what we’ll be exploring in this blog post. Read on to learn more about Opake’s life and art, and where you can find Opake’s art.

Who is Opake?

Ed Worley, or Opake as he is known in the art world, is a London-based artist who has developed a strong following, with his art selling for thousands on the art market. Opake is known for his unique painting technique and exciting, eye-catching artwork. There’s more to graffiti artist Opake than meets the eye, however - he has an interesting and inspiring story.

He has been inspired by graffiti art since the age of 13, being impressed by the idea that a person can make large-scale murals for anybody to see and access for free. He quickly developed his style and got involved with the graffiti subculture, and started to paint large-scale, colourful pieces with other artists. His distinct style stems from his passion for tattoo culture - this is reflected in his artwork through his bold outlines and block colour.

He completed a tattoo apprenticeship, so was surrounded by tattoo art for a while. Opake also has a passion for music - which is also evident in many of his pieces. His artwork often comes combined with graffiti tag lyrics, in his signature tag style relevant to each piece of art. He believes tagging is a raw, pure form of graffiti, and it requires much skill to design/ write a ‘good’ tag.

Opake had dealt with addiction for much of his life. The combination of therapy and channelling his addiction into art is what eventually got him on the road to recovery and out of the vicious addiction cycle. He is a firm believer that art can give you hope - and can save your life.

Opake is now sober and continues to channel this into his art. Addiction and the psychosis he experienced are recurring themes throughout his artwork. After taking the time to assess what addiction was to him, he came to the conclusion that art can become an addiction, and addiction isn’t only an illness. Instead, it can be a gift if used correctly. He said “anyone with those tendencies can easily abuse them, but if you harness that ability, it’s incredible”.

An Introduction to Opake’s Artwork

Opake is a hugely successful artist with hundreds of thousands of online fans. Addiction isn’t something you can necessarily escape, but it’s certainly something you can channel - and this is exactly what Opake has done; channelled his addiction into his exciting body of work.

His artwork typically consists of bright colours and bold lines, and he depicts cartoon characters. He uses a lot of repetition in his artwork, whether it be cartoon characters blending into each other, folding into each other, or squashing each other.

Whatever his method, Opake does not leave a single blank space on his canvas. The use of repetition and ‘cluttered’ imagery can give an insight into a psychotic mind; something Opake has experienced.

Opake combines graffiti with illustrative imagery, creating captivating and exciting artwork. Some characters that Opake has depicted include Mickey Mouse, Smurfs, Charlie Brown and Bugs Bunny.

However, he doesn’t just paint the cartoon characters we know and love - he turns them into unique artwork with elements of addiction and psychosis. Take Pink Panther, for example - painted in his unique style, the child’s cartoon character is depicted with a background of skulls.

Opake has self-described this style as ‘the disintegration of pop culture’. Insanity is a clear recurring theme throughout his artwork, after experiencing drug-induced psychosis himself.

Perfect Fit, another popular piece by Opake, features numerous versions of Snoopy facing in different directions, with Woodstock the bird sitting on one version of Snoopy’s nose in the middle of the canvas. This piece can be described as having contrasting imagery - both chaotic but peaceful at the same time. Some notable Opake pieces include:

• That’s All Folks
• Skull Bear
• Whallop
• Steaming
• Marvin
• Rabbit Season
• Psychosis in Blue
• Perfect Fit

Where To View or Buy Opake’s Art

Opake’s art can be seen on social media - Opake has begun to utilise social media and has quickly developed an online following around his artwork, with over 120,000 Instagram followers. His work has been exhibited around the world, from the UK to Japan, Mexico and the US. However, you don’t have to travel that far to view or buy Opake’s art.

At Grove Gallery, you can view artwork by Opake and invest in it too. Grove Gallery is the perfect place to invest in art - we can help you to generate between 8% and 12% profit on average per year from art investment. Purchase pieces such as Perfect Fit, That’s All Folks or Psychosis in Blue from Grove Gallery. These are iconic pieces by Opake and are spray paint and acrylic on plywood cradle.

It can be difficult to know which pieces of art are best to invest in. If you want to increase the chance of a successful investment, utilise our in-house art advisory service. Our art advisors can help you to navigate the art market and make the best investment based on your budget and taste.