OLI EPP: FIRE THE MENU

Perrotin is pleased to present the gallery’s second exhibition with London-based painter Oli Epp, titled Fire the Menu.

September 6 – October 19, 2024

The show’s title, Fire the Menu, references the restaurant terminology for ordering an entire menu, connoting a lavish yet gluttonous event. In the series, Epp prepared a feast for the senses, a visually opulent and surreal exploration of extravagance and contradiction. Epp's paintings, with their oneiric quality, can be read as a dialectic of the visible and the concealed, a commentary on the interplay between the superficiality of appearances and the depth of human experience.

His works engage with the absurdity of excess and the spectacle of performance, presenting a reality that is at once heightened and splintered. In contrast to his earlier works, which often featured modern technology, in Fire the Menu technology is conspicuously absent. Instead, Epp employs symbols of classical technique—string instruments, wooden easels, acrobatics, and the faint footlights of a stage. This shift in focus underscores a deeper exploration of the tools and performances that shape contemporary culture.

Epp's process reflects the dialogue of technique in a sort of material ballet, incorporating digital and traditional media, his brushstrokes are precise, lines are sharp, and colors are bold. His large-scale canvases juxtapose the hyper realistic textures and sheen of matte acrylics with elongated forms and conjoining or sprouting members. The paintings appear to be in a state of transition between liquid and solid, transparent and opaque, and this dynamic interplay is reflected in the compositions themselves, as they veer into the deep end of his consciousness.

Epp’s ability to blend critique with visual appeal makes his work both accessible and thought-provoking. The artist invites us all to “take as much as we want” – to indulge, but with a twinkle-toothed reminder of the paradoxes that animate his artistic universe.

Fire the Menu is a testament to Epp’s evolving artistic practice and his ongoing exploration of the complexities and decadence of contemporary life.