Markus Oehlen

In the 1970s and 80s he was a founding member of the influential neo-expressionist art movement Neue Wilde in Düsseldorf, alongside Martin Kippenberger, Markus Lüpertz, and his brother Albert Oehlen.

[2] Since 2017, Oehlen has been working in a studio built by Westner Schührer Zöhrer in the north of Munich.

Oehlen's work presents a revolt, in a sort punk style, often in dark-toned imagery against the apathy caused by prosperity in the 1980s and to minimalist art.

What is characteristic of his paintings is the overlaying of various motifs in a dense, impasto style and the borrowings from pop culture.

His diverse working techniques and layered image structure suggests a comparison with the effect of sampling in contemporary music.