Oliver Dorfer

Oliver Dorfer was born in 1963 and was predominantly influenced by the 1980s. The 1980s were a turbulent period culturally, and were marked by growing global capitalism, widespread mass media, significant discrepancies in wealth, alongside a distinctive sense of music and fashion, epitomized by electronic pop music and hip hop.

Artists growing up during this time were heavily influenced by this cultural atmosphere. The 1980s were a key decade politically, marked by the African Famine and the end of the Cold War, which was signified by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Neo-Geo and The Pictures Generation became leading art movements during the decade, alongside Neo-Expressionism which became well-known in Germany, France and Italy (where it was known as Transavanguardia). Artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Jörg Immendorf, Enzo Cucchi, Francesco Clemente and Julian Schnabel were key artists of the era, alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf, who established the street art and graffiti movements.

In the work of Oliver Dorfer, images sourced from pop culture and mass media are stripped to their barest components and laid out flat in bold, but sparing colors to create vivid graphics that, once painted on the reverse of acrylic glass, present themselves more as screens like those of televisions or computer displays than traditional painting. The components remain vaguely recognizable yet are devoid of iconography, reflecting the multitude of pop-media experience as though viewed through a fisheye lens.

CHRONICLE

1963 Born in Linz, Austria

1986 Studied sociology at Joh. Kepler University in Linz, Austria

1989 Talent Support Prize of the country of Upper Austria

1990 Member of the artist association MAERZ

1990 3rd prize in Roemerquelle Art Competition

1991 City of Linz graphic arts award

1991 Talent Support Prize of the city of Linz, Austria

1993 Worked in Toronto and Montreal for 4 months, creating large-sized carborundum prints

1994 Festival International de la Peinture, Cagnes-sur Mer, Menton, France

1995 Graphic Arts Award - Bau Holding

1997 Graduated as Master of Social Studies and Economics from the Johannes Kepler University of Linz