Biography

Based on a playful and yet complex structure of superimposed images, Jan-Ole Schiemann’s paintings use a collage-like technique of black ink applied to unprimed canvas and acrylic paint to invent highly concentrated surreal compositions. Oscillating between figurative forms and abstract elements drawn from comics, cartoons and neo-surreal traditions in animation film, the contoured entities and shapes intertwine constantly into painted hybrids. His determination of a clear, spatial arrangement is blurred and inside, in front of, and beneath the pictorial space, everything seems possible. Every form able to transcend the spheres and panels it’s assigned to, just to progress into an ever-changing density paired with crude brushstrokes and opaque, paste-like spots.Schiemann uses the different canvas formats as a visual playground, which enables him to analyze, dissect and reverse his own visual resources of employed black and white forms—colorful biomorphic fragments and ink stains softly merging into each other, or transparent panels and subtle zooms. remains an element of spontaneity; as the painting progresses, there is room to react, to change something, or to use coincidences. Jan-Ole Schiemann (b. 1983, Kiel, Germany; lives and works in Cologne) graduated from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where he studied under Albert Oehlen and Andreas Schulze. He has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions at Nino Mier, Kasmin Gallery, New York; Half Gallery, New York; Warhus Rittershaus, Cologne and Kunst im Hafen, Düsseldorf, among others.