Markus Oehlen
- Year of birth, place
- 1956, Krefeld, Germany
- Role at the ZKM
- in the collection
- Biography
- Markus Oehlen (the younger brother of Albert Oehlen, q.v.) was born in Krefeld in 1956. In 1987 he won the 'Berliner Kunstpreis'. He lives in Krefeld.
Oehlen is among the German painters who, in the early 1980s, attracted the attention of critics and the public with large figurative paintings executed in an emphatically gestural and expressive manner. Oehlen's work is characterized by the seemingly indecriminate combination of overlapping motifs that jostle urgently within each picture. On account of the enormous range of his working methods - including the use of intensely glowing colours (on occasion with an almost psychedelic effect), a tendency to draw on the visual language of comic strips, a readiness to print lino-cuts directly on to the canvas, and reliance on over-head projection in devising the basic layout and character of each image - Oehlen's approach has been compared with that of the sampling practised by some pop musicians. Oehlen's titles often incorporate richly allusive invented words that resist total decipherment. In addition to his paintings, Oehlen has also produced sculptures - large wooden shapes in styrofoam, wound about with string. Oehlen also plays in several rock bands, and has brought out CDs, collaborating on the most recent of these - »Jailhouse Indigo« - with his brother, Albert, and with the jazz musician Rüdiger Carl.
Individual exhibitions (selection)
1977 »Television«, Konrad Fischers Raum Neubrückstraße, Düsseldorf
1979 Künstlerhaus Hamburg; Galerie Kohnen, Düsseldorf
1981 Galerie Baviera, Zürich
1982 Galerie Max Hetzler, Stuttgart
1984 Galerie Onnasch, Berlin
1985 Asperger & Bischoff Gallery Inc., Chicago; Galerie Onnasch, Berlin
1987 Galerie Fucares, Madrid
1990 »Realidad Abstracta«, Universidad Internacional Menedez Pelayo, Santander
1992 David Nolan Gallery, New York
1993 »Projects 39«, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1994 Krefelder Kunstverein, Krefeld; »25 Zeichnungen - 1 Assemblage«, Galerie Andreas Binder, Munich
1995 Galería Saro León, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; Museum Dhondt Dhaenens, Deurle
1996 Hammelehle/Ahrens, Stuttgart; Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt/M; Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel
1997 »Paranoia Picknick«, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne; Galerie Andreas Binder, Munich
Group exhibitions (selection)
1978 »Böthe Thungen - chlechte Thäne«, Galerie Arno Kohnen, Düsseldorf; »1. Außerordentliche Veranstaltung in Bild und Klang zum Thema der Zeit: Elend«, Kippenberger's Büro, Berlin
1979 »Immer wieder X9200«, Galerie Philomene Magers, Bonn
1980 »2. außerordentliche Veranstaltung in Bild und Klang zum Thema der Zeit: Aktion Pisskrücke (Geheimdienst am Nächsten)«, Künstlerhaus, Hamburg; »Finger für Deutschland«, Atelier Jörg Immendorf, Düsseldorf; »Art Allemagne Aujourd'hui«, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1981 »Gegen-Bilder«, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
1982 »Über sieben Brücken musst Du gehen«, Galerie Max Hetzler, Stuttgart; »La Giovane Transavanguardia Tedesca«, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Modema, San Marino; »Tendenzen 82«, Ulmer Museum, Ulm
1984 »Zwischenbilanz«, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, subsequently at Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Forum für aktuelle Kunst/Galerie Krintzinger, Innsbruck, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn; »Von hier aus«, Messegelände, Düsseldorf
1985 »7000 Eichen«, Kunsthalle Bielefeld; »1945-1985. Kunst in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland«, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
1986 »Europa/Amerika«, Museum Ludwig, Cologne
1987 »Broken Neon - steirischer herbst 87«, Forum Stadtpark, Graz
1993 »Estrategia del Sentido«, Palacio Revillagigedo, Gijón
1994 »Akzentverschiebungen«, Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen
[Frauke Syamken, 1997]
