Oliver Plehn - Boxer XL

The Boxer XL painting was made with charcoal and gouache on a canvas 100 cm x 81 cm in the year 2025. Signed with a black marker in the center. Comes with a certificate of authenticity, immaculate condition. The work is shipped rolled inside a tube.

A boxer appears exhausted, his fists still wrapped and his gaze lost in the void. He does not celebrate any victory. He seems more like a man who has just survived another fight, both inside and outside the ring.
Oliver Plehn captures with blunt honesty that zone where physical strength meets the deepest vulnerability. The powerful body contrasts with a tired, almost absent expression, as if the real battle had happened long before the bell rang.
The combination of charcoal and gouache intensifies the rough texture of the skin and the fatigue accumulated in the muscles. The cold palette and the diffuse backgrounds focus all attention on the emotional weight of the face and the gesture.
A work that speaks of human stubbornness, the dignity of those who remain standing even when injured, and that silent melancholy that accompanies someone who has fought all their life.
Unique piece.

I work in figurative expressionism, centered on fragility and the depth of the human being. I paint portraits of historical and literary figures —writers, musicians, and characters like Hamlet— alongside people close to me: family, friends, and anonymous faces.
I’m interested in faces and bodies that carry an intense inner life: heavy gazes, gestures full of history, and that zone where strength and vulnerability meet. I do not seek to idealize. I prefer to show the cracks, the lights that emerge from darkness, and the small symbols that reveal each person’s true emotion.
I use muted palettes, rough textures, and nearly empty backgrounds so that the viewer’s attention falls on the presence of the face and the body. Between the bold stroke and the melancholic sensitivity, my figures always seem to be midway between matter and soul.
My paintings aim to generate a quiet, profound encounter with the human condition — with its melancholy, its dignity, and its fragile beauty.

SPHERES OF BEING: PORTRAITS OF FRAGILITY AND STRENGTH
By Antonio Sánchez. Director and curator of 1819 Art Gallery
The collection we are discussing is an emotive compendium of works that explore the depth of the human condition through portraits and figures laden with symbolism. These pieces intertwine with a visual narrative that unfolds a palette of quiet and often somber colors, evoking introspective and contemplative moods. Technical prowess reveals not only mastery of the medium but also an intense emotional connection between the artist and their subjects, each bearing a silent yet palpable story.
Textures and techniques range from softly diffused to aggressively marked, reflecting the diversity of human emotions and the complexity of our experiences. The strokes, whether firm or trembling, along with the interplay of light and shadow, build an atmosphere that transcends the visual to touch the viewer’s soul.
The work oscillates between literal representation and abstraction, allowing the viewer’s mind to complete the gaps, encouraging deeper engagement. The deliberate use of discordant or unexpected elements, such as a knife piercing a figure’s face, challenges our perceptions and provokes an introspective reflection on what it means to be human in times of emotional and social upheaval.
The collection as a whole serves as a mirror of the fragility and strength inherent in the human spirit. Each piece, while remaining unique in its expression, contributes to a broader dialogue about resilience and vulnerability. The choice of subjects, from human figures to depictions of animals, each imbued with deep emotion, amplifies this dialogue, suggesting universality in our emotional experiences.
This set of works, far from being merely a display of technical skill, stands as a testament to the power of art to move, connect, and challenge. The collection not only captures the aesthetic beauty of its subjects but also acts as a catalyst for personal and collective exploration of deep and often contradictory emotions. In doing so, these works invite viewers to confront the unknown within themselves and in the world around them, offering a space for recognition and catharsis.

Artist Biography – Oliver Plehn
The work of German painter and draftsman Oliver Plehn is characterized by expressive representations of the human and animal bodies. Faces and bodies lie at the center of his artistic universe: powerful, sensitive, and rich in psychological depth. Since childhood, the imagery of German Expressionists influenced him, whose emotional immediacy and formal freedom remain a reference in his artistic language to this day.
From a young age, Plehn chose to be an artist and to maintain his creative independence. In addition to studying painting and drawing in art schools, he studied natural sciences, which afforded him professional independence and artistic freedom. In the early 1990s, a fellowship in the field of quantum mechanics brought him to Madrid.
Oliver Plehn lives with his wife and two daughters in Madrid’s Carabanchel Alto neighborhood.

Artist Statement
My work arises from the impulse to understand human existence in its deepest and most contradictory interior. Throughout my career, I have explored portraiture as a means to reveal not only the visible but also the hidden: repressed emotions, soul scars, gestures of silent resistance. I paint from fragility, from that liminal space where pain and beauty coexist without permission.
I’m not interested in capturing perfect faces, but presence, the presence that speaks of what remains unsaid. I am drawn to silences, looks that carry stories, bodies that vibrate with lived experience. Each work is, for me, an attempt at dialogue with the unknown, that inner territory from which we often try to escape.
My goal as an artist is to create images that are not only observed but also questioned by the viewer. I want them to act as mirrors in which one can find something of oneself, even in discomfort or distress. I work in a figurative manner, yes, but I seek in it an openness to mystery, to doubt, to the emotion that cannot be put into words.
I feel that art has the power to heal, to reveal, and to accompany. In that sense, my practice is also a form of care: for myself and for all those who approach these images with an open heart.
Exhibitions
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Online presence on Artsy
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Online presence on Flecha.es
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Online presence on 1819 Art Gallery
•“Aqua versus Terra,” September 1–30, 2025, Madrid
•“Madrid Hidden,” June 1–July 15, 2025, Madrid
•“The Gods of Muay Thai and a Strange One,” December 1, 2022 – January 6, 2023, Madrid
•Exhibition at Yale Graduate School of Art, March 2021
•Solo exhibition at Madrid-Barajas International Airport "Faces of the World," December 30, 2019 – February 7, 2020
•Solo exhibition "The Passion of the Christ" at Friedenskirche German church, Calle Serrano 6, Madrid
•Exhibition at United Artist Fair 2019 at Casa de Cantabria, Madrid, February 2019
•Paintings exhibition on Calle Serrano, Madrid, December 2018 – February 2019
•Solo painting exhibition in Madrid, Spain, November 2018
•Painting exhibition in Madrid, Spain, Calle Serrano, November 2016 – January 2017