Culture Now: Michael van Ofen and Roger Tatley

Düsseldorf-based artist Michael van Ofen discusses his work and ethos with Roger Tatley in this lunch-time talk. While he has often used historical paintings and subjects as source material, and draws on traditional themes such as still life, portraits or events, his bold, unique reductionist style and deconstructivist approach are anything but revivalist. His painting has been described as reclaiming the aesthetic space vacated by post-modernist painters.

Since his first major solo show in 1991, van Ofen has exhibited widely throughout the USA, Europe and Japan, including a retrospective at Kunstmuseum Dieselkraftwerk, Cottbus (2010). This year he was part of a group show at the Kunstakadamie, Düsseldorf, where he was trained.

Roger Tatley is Senior Director at the Alison Jacques Gallery. He has written for a number of publications including Dazed and Confused and was editor in chief of the art magazine Modern Painters. He has also published a number of books on topics including architecture, photography and film.