Oli Epp says a lot with very little. He doesn't overwhelm with hundreds of colors, and his edges are sharp and his subject matter is clear. He portrays the digital with a real hand, a maximizing of the minimal. He has dabbled with the depiction of celebrity, a sort of Warholian cast of characters that appear in his work and in particular with Shampoo, his new show at Carl Kostyál in London, has focused on iconic female celebrity that leaves you guessing but also iconic in their own right. The gallery mentions Tom Wesselmann, and that seems to be an apt comparison for the contemporary Epp.
And even though these are playful works, there is an intensity and almost manic energy in their composition. The facial expressions are jagged and hard, with attitude and hyper-sexualized anonymity. In this way, Epp plays with our memory of the icon, not with softness but with rawness. —Evan Pricco
