AKIHABARA SCHMUTZPOP ÄRMELKANAL TIMESQUARE DREAMPUNK

Markus Oehlen

Info: His ideas, motifs, techniques, and material have changed rapidly. But Markus Oehlen’s repeated reinvention of himself remains a constant. This is what makes him so inimitable. For over forty years, since his first solo exhibition at Konrad Fischer’s exhibition space in 1977, he has turned against any visual comfort or aesthetic convention. Oehlen is a subversive inventor of pictures and a sensitive breaker of rules. He draws on the boundless reservoir of the medial world that surrounds us, playfully intermixing high and trash culture to create hybrid picture puzzles. But it is impossible to be certain whether this results from sheer irreverence or attentive inquisitiveness. Probably both at the same time. (…)

Text: Christian Malycha