Skarstedt Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition Computer Paintings by Albert Oehlen. There will be thirteen paintings on view and this will mark the first time such a significant number of these black and white paintings will be on view in the United States.
Albert Oehlen began the Computer Paintings in 1990, after the purchase of his first laptop computer. The artist created a couple of functional motifs within four years using a computer program on his laptop and continued to use variations of these motifs until he finished working on the series in 2008.
Where his earlier paintings employ a playful twist on historical subjects and methods of painting, the Computer Paintings reveal abstract images that were created with the use of a foreign tool. The limitations of computer programs at this time provoked Oehlen to finish and smooth out the stair-cased and highly pixilated lines by hand in order to produce a more desirable computer picture. The limitations he experienced with the computer program heightened a sense of irony; albeit new technology, computers in the early 1990’s were imperfect and required a human hand to enhance its final product. Meanwhile, the human hand destroys any authenticity of the term “Computer Paintings.”
Albert Oehlen was born in 1954 in Krefeld, Germany. Oehlen’s work has been exhibited extensively in many galleries throughout the United States and Europe since the early 1980’s. The exhibition of works at Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami in 2005 marked his first major solo exhibition at a museum in the United States. He has also had significant exhibitions at major institutions such as Whitechapel Gallery, London, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, and the Kunsthalle Basel. This exhibition at Skarstedt Gallery coincides with a show of new paintings at Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York.
For further information, please contact +1 212 737 2060 or info@skarstedt.com
Albert Oehlen began the Computer Paintings in 1990, after the purchase of his first laptop computer. The artist created a couple of functional motifs within four years using a computer program on his laptop and continued to use variations of these motifs until he finished working on the series in 2008.
Where his earlier paintings employ a playful twist on historical subjects and methods of painting, the Computer Paintings reveal abstract images that were created with the use of a foreign tool. The limitations of computer programs at this time provoked Oehlen to finish and smooth out the stair-cased and highly pixilated lines by hand in order to produce a more desirable computer picture. The limitations he experienced with the computer program heightened a sense of irony; albeit new technology, computers in the early 1990’s were imperfect and required a human hand to enhance its final product. Meanwhile, the human hand destroys any authenticity of the term “Computer Paintings.”
Albert Oehlen was born in 1954 in Krefeld, Germany. Oehlen’s work has been exhibited extensively in many galleries throughout the United States and Europe since the early 1980’s. The exhibition of works at Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami in 2005 marked his first major solo exhibition at a museum in the United States. He has also had significant exhibitions at major institutions such as Whitechapel Gallery, London, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, and the Kunsthalle Basel. This exhibition at Skarstedt Gallery coincides with a show of new paintings at Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York.
For further information, please contact +1 212 737 2060 or info@skarstedt.com