Born in Schaffhausen, CH, 1970
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA
Olaf Breuning works across a wide range of media, including photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, video, and installation. His art blurs the line between fact and fiction, dissolving the boundaries between art and everyday life. Rather than existing in isolation, Breuning’s work engages directly with the world around it.
At first glance, his use of humor and self-irony may seem lighthearted and accessible. However, a closer look reveals a deeper, more layered complexity.
Breuning playfully combines elements of high and low culture, placing iconic references from art history alongside symbols of contemporary popular culture. With an eclectic and often absurd approach, he reimagines familiar images from Western visual traditions, using them to comment on modern life and consumerism in the West.
His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the NRW Forum in Düsseldorf, the Public Art Fund at Friedman Plaza in New York, Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, ICA London, PS1 MoMA in New York, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zürich, Haus der Kunst in Munich, and the Tinguely Museum in Basel.
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