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As a figurative painter, Oliver Kropf engages with the challenges and upheavals
of our time. Amid uncertainty, shifting values, and the advance of progress - along
with its potential exhaustion - he explores the boundaries of reality. His pictorial
worlds merge human, animal, and machine into complex, interwoven forms of
existence, staging a choreography in which space and time appear displaced.

Kropf’s works are characterized by a blend of dream and reality, influenced by
themes such as pop culture, fashion, transhumanism, and dystopia. At their core
lies a constant inquiry into the nature of being human and humanity itself. The
technoid, armored, and wounded figures he creates grope their way through
reality and make their presence felt in a striking, urgent manner.

In his painting “0098 – Beyond,” Oliver Kropf transforms the iconic album cover
of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter into a surreal vision between pop culture and dystopia.
The singer appears as a technoid rider on an exhausted horse with a turbine tail.
Rider and steed are surrounded and accompanied by oversized insects - symbols
of surveillance and threat. At the center of the scene, a glowing pink strap-on dildo
vies for attention. Here, Kropf creates an apocalyptic scenario that raises questions
about identity, progress, and the role of iconic bodies in an over-staged world.

In the painting “00105 – Dolly,” Oliver Kropf presents the country legend Dolly
Parton as a transhuman rider of a mythical creature. Wearing a cowboy hat and
Western shirt, she sits sideways atop a rearing unicorn. Her artificial eye fixes the
viewer with a dissecting gaze. Multiplied limbs and a robotic arm point to a
fragmented identity in the age of self-optimization. The horn of the mythical creature -
once a symbol of magic and vitality - now appears weary and disenchanted. The
turquoise space, equipped with a tiny window, resembles a prison of staging. At
the feet of rider and unicorn lie a shed human skin and a fast-food cup - signs of
consumption, transformation, and transience.

Kropf’s painterly approach is shaped by chance: colors are applied, structures
emerge, and are repeatedly reworked until abstract and figurative elements
become visible. Randomness serves as a creative tool, enabling him to create
new visual worlds.

Through his works, Oliver Kropf draws attention to humanity’s ruthless pursuit of
materialism and addresses the fragility of existence in a world shaped by narcissism,
transhumanism, and digitalization. His art invites viewers to consciously perceive
the relentless transformation of the world and to immerse themselves in the depths
of its multifaceted reality.

Andrea Dallago, Oliver Kropf - a figurative painter, Zurich 2026