Tina Oelker

Expect fulfillment – fulfill expectation

Tina Oelker combines opposites and uses duality as fuel for her shape and colour compositions. They have this earthy lightness and somehow seem familiar. Each stroke recalls an origin that is far removed from two-dimensional ways of thinking and living. Tina Oelker is avant-garde in the classical sense. Her lyrical texts and poems speak the same language as her paintings. Her personal stories are Tina´s teacher and one thing becomes clear, her hard school began "early enough". It is a question of timelessness, of the will to break away from a linear idea of success in order to create something new. The fact of 1000 Hares, the mastery, the passion to switch from one discipline to the next provides Tina Oelker with an infinite wealth of what she has already created and also of possibilities.

Jean-Luc Cujaux, 2019

Tina Oelker, geboren 1973 in Westfalen, wohnt und arbeitet seit 1995 in Hamburg. Sie studierte Illustration, Advertising Basics und Malerei in New York City und Hamburg. Die Produzentengalerien Durchgang und Hafentor7 waren ihre ersten großen öffentlichen Projekte. Seit Beginn der 1000 Hasen erlangte Tina größere Aufmerksamkeit, welches bis heute als Gesamtwerk unveröffentlicht ist. Mit den Werkgruppen „25 Farben Stockholm“ und „12,5 Farben Florenz" ist sie wieder in der abstrakten Malerei angekommen. Seit 2021 performed und improvisiert Oelker auch auf größeren Bühnen. Ihre Lyrik und Prosa ergänzen ihr Werk auf abstrakte Weise, ohne es selbst zu erklären. Sie veröffentlicht mit „Hasen und Göttern N° 1, 2001 – 2021“, ihr erstes Künstlerbuch. 2023 folgen die „Arbeitsnotizen einer Malerin“, eine Zusammenfassung ihrer lyrischen Texte, Prosa und Karteikartentexte der letzten 20 Jahre.


Born in Hamm-Westphalia, West Germany in 1973, Tina Oelker lives and works in Hamburg since 1995. From the age of 15 to 20, she took lessons in modern painting, form and color theory and studied in New York City in '94 and '95. She graduated from the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in 2004 with the motif of the hare. In 2003 she opened her first producer gallery with the "Schützenfest" (Shooting festival) in Hamburg's Milchstrasse. In 2007, she began her conceptual work "1000 Hasen" and opened the Hasenmanufaktur Hamburg in 2010. Until 2014, she regularly curated exhibitions with a total of over 200 artists and ended the Hasenmanufaktur project at Hafentor 7 with "Schützenfest-Reloaded". In 2017 she starts with "25 Colors Stockholm" and "12,5 Colors Florence". Since 2021, Tina has also been performing and improvising on larger stages. Her poetry and prose complement her work in an abstract way without explaining it herself. She published "Hasen und Göttern", a summary of her complex work, followed by "Arbeitsnotizen einer Malerin" in 2023.

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 paints, balsamic turpentine, cotton fabric, linen, several brushes, rags and the use of hand cream has probably increased immensely in the last 20 years.

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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