We recently dropped by Oli Epp's temporary studio in Amsterdam, located in the unique space of The Garage Gallery in the historic center of the Dutch capital. Staying in the town for a full month, the London-based artist is spending long days working on some new paintings that will be exhibited later on.
Inspired by his new surrounding, 3 of the biggest paintings are inspired by Amsterdam's reputation as a place where anything goes. A buxom blonde stripper hanging upside down on a pole, a local dealer offering a variety of life-altering goods, or a latex-wearing character hanging on chains, these are taking a bit of a turn from artist's usual imagery that portrays daily routines and banal situations. Focusing on the "other side" of regular life, the ever-present debauchery, Epp is suggesting the possibilities of his future works with these new pieces.
Once again cleverly including certain features while completely ignoring irrelevant ones, it's the depicted elements that construct the narrative of the image. For example, by painting a thin black ribbon around the neck, the stripper piece titled Scarlett is having subtle reference to world's first ever painting portraying a prostitute, Olympia by Edouard Manet. Using big amounts of masking tape to achieve crisp sharp edges and vibrant color contrasts the overall image has the unforgiving feel of the perfect, computer-generated image. Skillfully mixing the complete deconstruction of his characters to the rough freehand silhouette, along with the addition of realistically rendered details, the works are perfectly mixing the digital aesthetics with classic oil painting. —Sasha Bogojev
Some of the paintings from this residency will be presented by Richard Heller gallery in Miami in December, while others serve as an introduction of the kind of paintings that Epp will be creating for his US debut show with LA-based gallery.
