David Ostrowski has produced a body of work that revolves around the idea of the zero point—a place of nothingness or the beyond of cultural and painterly codes. Ostrowski’s paintings are products of a desire to eliminate painterly knowledge. They are expressions of the idea that in producing notions of emptiness, one also grapples with and comments on the history of painting. The Cologne-based artist’s light-handed and complex approaches to the non-motif open the space of the canvas to unique breaches of perception and an unexpected freedom of seeing.

David Ostrowski was born in Cologne, Germany in 1981. He now lives and works in Cologne, Germany.

Education

David Ostrowski studied at the Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf with Albert Oehlen.

Exhibitions

Ostrowski’s work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions, including: So kalt kann es nicht sein / It can't be that cold, Sprüth Magers, Berlin (2021); Overtone with Tobias Spichtig, Avant-Garde Institute, Warsaw and Lieber Nackt als Gefühlsleben, Jir Sandel, Copenhagen (both 2020); Political Paintings, Sundogs, Paris (2019); The Thin Red Line, Sprüth Magers, London (2018); Bei mir geht es in den Keller hoch, Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona (2017); To Lose with Michail Pirgelis, Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Dueren (2016); The F Word, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen (2015); I want to die forever, Kunstraum Innsbruck (2015); How to do things left, Rubell Family Collection, Miami and Just do it, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (both 2014)

His work has also been shown in selected group exhibitions, including: Super Super Markt, 7. Himmel, Berlin (2022); NOTHINGTOSEENESS, Akademie der Künste Berlin and Architektura, FUHRWERKSWAAGE, Cologne (both 2021); One Moment Please, Triest, New York and Il Ghirigoro, Pio Pico, Los Angeles (both 2020); Geisterbahn, Galerie Bernhard, Zurich, Raw, DuMont Kunsthalle, Cologne (both 2019); 3 Zimmer, Küche, Bad, BRAUNSFELDER, Cologne (2019); Trance, Aishti Foundation, Beirut (2018); Full of Peril and Weirdness: Painting as a Universalism, M Woods Museum, Beijing (2015), Ordinary Freaks, Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz and Beware Wet Paint, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (both 2014)