[3] Born in Krefeld, West Germany, in 1954,[4] Oehlen moved to Berlin in 1977, where he worked as a waiter and decorator with his friend, the artist Werner Büttner.
[8] Influenced by other German painters such as Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter, Oehlen focuses on the process of painting itself.
[9] During the 1980s he began combining abstract and figurative elements of painting in his works, as part of a reaction to the prevailing Neo-Expressionist aesthetic of the time.
[12] In Oehlen's recent work, flat, figurative cut-outs-all the products of computer-aided design (CAD), and gestural strokes of oil paint trade places in the service of collage.
[13] In his recent Finger Paintings, color-blocked advertisements are an extension of the canvas, providing fragmented, readymade surfaces for Oehlen's visceral markings, made with his hands, as well as brushes, rags, and spray-cans.
The intrinsic and extrinsic enemies of painting — avant-garde and new technologies — are brought into the picture, and clichés like beauty or virtuosity are smuggled in cunningly".
[18] Art critic Peter Schjeldahl wrote on his work in 2015: "There is as much philosophical heft to what he won't allow himself, in the ways of order and balance, as in the stuttering virtuosities of what he does.
[24] In June 2019, at a Sotheby's auction in London, his Self-Portrait with Empty Hands sold to dealer Per Skarstedt for $7,542,157, a new record for the artist.
[25] Oehlen has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including I Will Always Champion Good Painting at Whitechapel Art Gallery in London (2006), Grounswell at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2005), Provins – Legende at Museet for Samtidskunst[26] in Roskilde, Denmark and Spiegelbilder 1982–1985 at Max Hetzler gallery in Berlin (2005).