CURATED: JURGEN OSTARHILD

Jurgen Ostarhild (*1956 in Überlingen) is a German artist and photographer who photographed style-defining portraits of Martin Kippenberger and Kate Moss in the 1990s.

The Berlin-based artist uses light and code as his canvas. He creates image automata, site-specific installations, multiples, and printed artefacts to investigate the boundaries of concrete visual language in the post-photographic landscape. His current work explores distributed data networks such as public blockchains to generate real-time performances of encoded light, drawing from the traditions of American colour field painting and concrete art.

Photo by Galya Feierman.

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View the NFT (Tezos) on <a href="https://objkt.one/t/73">objkt.one</a>. ABOUT EXPANDED.ART x objkt.one All NFTs (1 of 1s) will be available via auctions on objkt.one on August 31, 6 PM CET.
ABOUT THE WORK "Landscape? No. It is a double work that Jurgen Ostarhild offers us here. A work of rereading a tradition, that of the landscape of German romanticism, first, but also a work of emotional neutralisation, of ironic distancing. It is in this in-between that the meaning is hollowed out through lyrical reference and critical derealization, as if the landscape were cut off from its sap and its flow of romantic feeling and emphasis. The theme then, as if vitrified, imperceptibly shifts. This shift therefore tends towards derealization and classification while at the same time working on oneself through asceticism and purification of all sentimentality and the work of the clerk of the real, of naturalistic codification, and of the constitution of series. A reflection on the act of photography and the constitution of reality." – Jean Charles Sabor

Himmel

POEMS FOR DAMIEN HIRST by Jurgen Ostarhild is a series of text images based on the spot paintings by Damien Hirst. Each color spot was assigned the corresponding hexadecimal code (hex code). The size, proportions, and titles of the originals have been retained. A special monospace font designed for this series allows the six alphanumeric characters that make up a hex code to be mapped as a circular area.
Eugen Gomringer, the father of concrete poetry, discovered a certain poetry in these code pictures and sees them as a continuation of his work. If one gave meaning to the individual characters, the images could be read as verses and poems. In 2019, Ostarhild was part of the exhibition PHÄNOMENE DER SPRACH-KUNST IN WORTBILDERN AUS LETTERN UND CODE curated by Eugen Gomringer at the Institute for Constructive Art and Concrete Poetry in Rehau: works in letters containing the hexadecimal code for color photography were presented.

JURGEN OSTARHILD | POEMS FOR DAMIEN HIRST

Techno Terrain: Nature in the Age of the Metaverse

Photographer Jurgen Ostarhild’s 40-year career boasts an impressive resume of noteworthy gallery shows and portraits of cultural figures, fashion brands, and celebrities. Despite his roots in fashion photography, Ostarhild’s motivation for creating goes far beyond the lens of a camera. The artist has delved deep into dissecting the 0s and 1s that comprise a digital image. Through the reimagination of his imagery be it with Photoshop manipulation or hex codes, Ostarhild pushes the boundaries of what exactly a photograph is. NFTs, blockchain technology, and the Web3 community have driven his pursuit of digital art even further and it seems that he has only just begun.

Blockchain and Post-Photography

JURGEN OSTARHILD: "CODE IS CONTEMPORARY TEXT"

ARTISTS 

What would Marshall McLuhan write today? Very likely text messages. The global village is now largely connected via messenger apps and social media. Life is closeness to strangers and friends, changing every second. Thoughts and feelings are shared as they are thought and lived. 

AN EXHIBITION OF MIXED MESSAGES

THE TEXT IS THE MESSAGE | GALLERY

TECHNO TERRAIN: NATURE IN THE AGE OF THE METAVERSE explores the dynamic relationship between nature and the digital realm. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through a mesmerizing fusion of AI-driven digital art, nostalgia-infused landscapes, and the limitless possibilities of the metaverse.



NATURE IN THE AGE OF THE METAVERSE 

TECHNO TERRAIN | SHOWROOM

EXPANSIONS IN CHROMATIC REPRODUCTION by Jurgen Ostarhild is his first solo show at the gallery. On view will be selected works from his extensive oeuvre, spanning from photography to AI.

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