We are pleased to present Portland artist Fritz Ferguson's baby oehlen. Over the last year, Ferguson has been ripping out and painting over pages from the book Albert Oehlen (Taschen). 

In some works, Ferguson blends his marks with Oehlen's, making it difficult to distinguish the two. In others, Ferguson exorcises an image buried in Oehlen's abstractions. In Conductor, for example, the familiar Oehlen motif of the tree is pushed into the surreal. Holding knife and fork, the tree saws off its own limbs. 

Ferguson considers Oehlen a hero, but has never seen one of his paintings in person—only in books, where Oehlen's famous scale is rendered tiny, and his paintings can resemble those of a baby. 

 

Artist Statement:

"baby is a tribute to one of my favorite painters but also an effort to best him. Printed matter, churned out by galleries and publishers is advertising for wall decor. And yet it is all I know of Oehlen. To me he is a oehlepainter. Overpainting and exhibiting tiny reproductions of his work is a travesty, and I especially like that aspect. It is satisfying to direct gestures back at the older generation to help them feel the terror of youth again."