Albert Oehlen’s paintings humorously critique with hallowed respect the predominant values of traditional painting. In Fibreglass Scroll, his sensitively treated surface adopts the ephemeral radiance of Abstract Expressionism, while all the while alluding to an aura of mysticism and spirituality.
Devoid of color, Oehlen’s passionate brushwork becomes a vacuous gesture; his black and white palette relegates the sincerity of painting to the annals of history, calling to mind the grisaille technique employed by Renaissance and Mannerist masters. Stylized, flat shapes float above Oehlen’s painterly field, transforming his abstract composition to a Picasso-like animal, uncontrollably wild and powerful.