MoCA presents Albert Oehlen: I Know Whom You Showed Last Summer

MOCA is also presenting the first major U.S. exhibition of paintings by German artist Albert Oehlen. Born in 1954 in Krafeld, Germany, Albert Oehlen, who was a student of painter Sigmar Polke, has been an important force in recent German painting and one of the most influential artists of his generation. A collaborator with artists Martin Kippenberger, Jonathan Meese, and Georg Herold, Oehlen continues a dialogue with Modernist art history while parodying this tradition. I know whom you showed last summer, curated by Bonnie Clearwater, includes over 30 canvases painted by the artist from 1983 to the present. The selection focuses on how Oehlen pushes the parameters of formal Modernism to the extreme by using colors, forms and spatial relationships that distort the accepted standards of “good” painting. Ultimately, these visually aggressive canvases form their own internal logic and aesthetic. Oehlen, whose work vacillates between abstraction and representation, recognizes the influences of American artists such as Hans Hofmann and John Graham, who showed the same concerns in their canvases. By presenting Albert Oehlen’s exhibition, MOCA aims to document an ongoing investigation of painting that breaks with the conventional art historical emphasis on the development of personal styles. Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) 770 NE 125th Street, North Miami. 305.893.6211