Albert Oehlen
Ol`man driver - 3d, 2019
3D laser-engraved crystal
10 x 10 x 10 cm
Edition of 50 + 5 APs
With a signed COA by the artist
£2,400 (incl VAT)
On the occasion of his solo exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries, Albert Oehlen has created a Limited Edition Ol`man driver - 3d.
Albert Oehlen has been a key figure in contemporary art since the 1980s. By bringing together abstract, figurative, collaged and computer-generated elements on the canvas, he continues to explore an inventive diversity of artistic approaches. Through Expressionist brushwork, Surrealist gestures and deliberate amateurism, Oehlen engages with the history of painting, pushing its essential components of colour, gesture, motion and time to bold new extremes.
Oehlen’s exhibition at the Serpentine focuses on a recurring thread within his practice through a selection of works dating from the 1980s until the present day, which are brought together under the rubric of the John Graham Remix series. Taking its title from the eponymous American Modernist figurative painter, this body of work appropriates elements of Graham’s painting, Tramonto Spaventoso (‘Terrifying Sunset’) (1940–49), which have then been interpreted, remixed and reconfigured by Oehlen across multiple compositions. Graham’s painting becomes a singular starting point for the artist’s experimentation, ‘a vehicle for endless interpretation’ that he has continued to return to throughout his career.
This Limited Edition Ol`man driver - 3d transposes the various motifs contained within Graham’s painting into a three-dimensional form, allowing for each of its elements to become visible from multiple perspectives. This new sculptural work is a continuation of Oehlen's attempts to decipher and unravel the enigmatic codes of Graham’s composition, questioning the relationship between flatness and depth within the realm of image making.
Developed and produced with Fine City Crystals, UK.