Albert Ohlen is a German painter whose work questions methods and means of painting to raise a sense of awareness of the medium, which he aims to reinvent and reshape in opposition to traditional hierarchies. Inspired by Neo-Expressionism, a prevailing aesthetic of the 1980s, Ohlen's work became characteristic for combining abstract and figurative elements, as a potent reminder of the multiple forces involved in the resurgence of painting at the end of the previous century. By bringing together multiple styles, Ohlen's work escapes easy classification. Instead, his spatially complex works have been continuously challenging and expanding established notions of painting.

- Billigatom, 2002
is part of a group of works for which simultaneity of figurative and abstract elements are characteristic. Resulting in complex formal accumulations, Ohlen shapes a world reminiscent of the surrealist “écriture automatique” where different figurative and non-figurative elements meet and build strange combinations. Ohlen recycles here motives from his earlier paintings, depicting them instead in multi-perspective settings, quoting himself as much as art history. Straddling various debates surrounding the nature of painting, - Billigatom
, like other works from this period, deconstruct the medium to its constituent elements, such as color, gesture, motion, or time. Spheric shapes, reminiscent of planets or fruits, are arranged in a semi-circular manner around a central block of purely abstract brush strokes, splashes, and drips of paint. Vibrant colors and textures shape a complex scenery composed of a mix of geometric and strictly abstract forms, characteristic for the richness of their color. The painting is a visual analysis of painterly means, materials, and motives. Through their depiction and relation to one another, they find themselves in constant flow and transformation. Through an expressive brushstroke, surrealist methodology, and self-conscious amateurism, Ohlen engages with the fine line between the history of abstract and figurative painting while pushing the essential components of abstraction to new extremes.