Oliver Osborne: Bonnie

April 17 – June 24, 2018

Opening: Friday, 20 April, 7pm

Oliver Osborne’s paintings bring together elements of abstraction, figuration and appropriation without hierarchy. Silk-screens of appropriated cartoons, pages from language textbooks, large multi-panelled monochrome canvases, embroidery and precisely executed paintings of figures and objects are all part of his repertoire. By using this broad visual language he attempts to push against the traditional divergence between abstraction and figuration, and understand what potential the act of painting still holds within contemporary art. The exhibition at Bonner Kunstverein is a new commission and is Osborne’s first major solo exhibition in Germany.

Oliver Osborne (born 1985 Edinburgh, Scotland, lives and works in Berlin, Germany) has held solo exhibitions at Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin (2017); Peles Empire, Berlin (2016); Vilma Gold, London (2016); Gió Marconi, Milan (2015); Catherine Bastide, Brussels (2015). Other recent exhibitions include: Plant Scenery of the World, Inverleith House, Edinburgh (2017); Home is not a place, German Embassy, London (2017); The Written Trace, Paul Kasmin, New York (2015); The Funnies, MOT International, Brussels (2015); The Go Between, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples and Sprovieri, London (2014); Everything Falls Faster Than An Anvil, Pace Gallery, London (2014); Bloomberg New Contemporaries, ICA, London (2012).

Oliver Osborne, Bonnie, installation view, Bonner Kunstverein, 2018. Photo: Mareike Tocha — Oliver Osborne, *Bonnie*, installation view, Bonner Kunstverein, 2018. Photo: Mareike Tocha