Oliver Plehn

Artist Statement

As a chemist and artist, I am especially interested in what constitutes reality. Modern physics teaches us that absolute reality does not exist. An observer cannot explore reality from the outside, she has to get involved. Reality is relational, subjective, and the observer is an essential part of it. This is the conceptional background of all of my works.
I aim to make deep contact with reality through an artistic approach that is direct, unfiltered, intense and unpremeditated. I do not want to paint what I know; I want to know what I paint.
I do not intend to transmit feelings as an expressionist artist would do, but to provide a catalyst for the viewer to engage in a conversation. Life is not only mental and it is not only emotional, which is what led me to find an approach of fusion that I call “Catalysism”.
We need all our senses and mental power to explore reality, but these are different in all human beings. So must be their conclusions and their perception of reality. This openness also explains the variety of reactions to my work. People often tell me that they feel attracted and disturbed at the same time. They conceive my work as very personal and extremely honest. But yet it is full of referenc...

Bio and work process

The artistic universe of Oliver Plehn is populated by expressive representations of faces and human and animal bodies. Imagery of the German expressionists shaped the early childhood of this German painter and draughtsman. As a teenager, he decided two things: to be an artist and to maintain his artistic independence. For that reason, he studied painting and drawing at art schools, but also studied at university to make a living in another field.
In the early nineties, the graduate chemist and freelance translator met his future wife Paloma in Germany. He used a scholarship in quantum mechanics in Madrid to follow her back to her home town, and since then he has been living in this metropolitan centre of special artistic interest. There he continued developing artistically, building friendships with other artists like well-known ceramist Gregorio Peño, while his freelance job offered him the possibility to work professionally as an artist.
Exhibitions in Germany and Spain followed. Recently, the artist has completed two solo shows in Madrid’s Barajas International Airport with more than 30 large portraits, and an exhibition of his version of “The Passion of Christ” in the emblematic German church located...

Solo Exhibition in the International Airport Madrid-Barajas "Faces of the World", 30th December 2019-7th February 2020

Exhibition in the United Artist Fair 2019 in the Casa de Cantabria, Madrid
February 2019

Exhibition of paintings in Calle Serrano, Madrid, December 2018-February 2019

Solo exhibition of paintings in Madrid, Spain, November 2018

Exhibition of paintings in Madrid, Spain, November 2016-January 2017