Tina Oelker

DIE WELT IST EINE ANANAS, UND IN IHR WOHNT EIN HASE.

In her youth she learned nude drawing and modern painting, in her 20s she studied in New York City at SVA and The Art Students League. She completed her studies at HAW in Hamburg in 2004 with the motif of the hare. With “ 25 Farben (Colours) Stockholm" and "12.5 Farben Florenz (Colours Florence)“, Tina Oelker has returned to abstraction. She became known with her oeuvre "1000 Hasen", which is still in its entirety under lock and key. In spring 2021, her first illustrated book "Von Hasen und Göttern (Of Hares and Gods)" was published, which summarizes 20 years of her work. Prose, such as the "1000 Theses" and lyrical texts from her "Leporello", complement her work in an abstract way without explaining it themselves, and have also been a main component of her performances and social evenings since 2016.


Tina Oelker is fundamentally concerned with the question of the possibility of freely combining verbal opposites. She questions, for example, a separation of nature and man, male and female, animal and divine or real and abstract always with the attitude of an eternal student of a complex world. For her, things are what they are, and at the same time she always questions them. Her working method can be assigned to the viewer by recurring elements such as stripes, the motif of the hare, contents of hunting and Greek mythology, but rather by her strong ductus and her vital compositions of form and colour. What actually constitutes her intense and vibrant paintings, installations and happenings can only be said, or even more so, in the encounter with the artwork itself.

What is it about your studio space that inspires you?

The old, tactile materials of the studio, the freedom and the time I can live in the middle of the city.

What sounds, scents and sights do you encounter while in your studio?

The smell of fresh oil color with hints of turpentine and fresh espresso

What is your favourite material to work with? How has your use of it evolved throughout your practice?

I use oil paint, and in the last 20 years I have been able to intensify the variations, expression and compositions of colors in my painting.

What themes do you pursue?

I use the theme of hunting in its ambiguity, the natural interplay of male and female, returned to Greek mythology via the hare, and again intend to let painting itself become the subject.

What advice has had the biggest impact on your career?

create yourself

If you could install your art absolutely anywhere, where would that be?

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

If you could only have one piece of art in your life, what would it be?

Lass mal den Affen, der geht!

If you weren´t an artist, what would you be doing?

Psychology and farming

What are your favourite places besides your studio?

Wherever I can ride my racing bike

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