Albert Oehlen (1954, Krefeld, Germany) studied painting and was a student of Sigmar Polke at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, Germany, between 1978 and 1981. Oehlen devoted himself professionally to painting and music. He was a member of the Bad Boy Group with Georg Herold and Martin Kippenberger in Berlin. He would work and exhibit for about two decades with Martin Kippenberger, who he met at the end of the 70's in Hamburg.
He taught painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf between 2000 and 2009.
In the 90's, and for a short time, Oehlen directed his experimental electronic music publishing company – Leiterwagen, and as a musician, also played in punk bands in the 1970's and 1980's. He is still a member of Red Krayola (band originally founded in Houston, Texas, USA, in 1966) since the late 1990's and Van Oehlen (the band is formed by Albert and Markus Oehlen, his brother, also an artist). References to music are frequent in his drawing and painting work and he sometimes accompanies his exhibitions with live musical performances (Serpentine Gallery, 2019-2020).
He exhibited individually for the first time in 1981 at the Max Hetzler gallery in Berlin, Germany, and is currently represented in major international museum institutions such as the Centre Pompidou and Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, both in Paris, France; Daimler Contemporary, in Berlin; MoMA in New York, USA; De La Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space, in Miami, USA; Tate, in London, United Kingdom, and ZKM – Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, in Karlsruhe, Germany, among many others. In 2013 he participated in the general exhibition of the 55th Venice Biennial, Italy.
His constant questioning of methods and means of painting for a greater awareness of the medium, which the artist intends to reinvent and rethink, as opposed to traditional hierarchies, has made Oehlen one of the most respected and listed painters of today.
Pedro Sequeira
