Pia Dehne

Pia Dehne’s paintings are so photorealistic, they almost tip into abstraction, as she describes: “My paintings are like optical illusions—hyper-realistic and abstract at the same time.” Interested in color, form, and surface more than content, Dehne creates her exceptionally detailed works from photographs and memory. She is particularly interested in camouflage, as her paintings of hunters in fatigues, warships, and reptiles attest. For Dehne, camouflage represents a form of interconnectedness—a way of merging, both visually and emotionally, with the surrounding world—as well as fetish. She says, “The urge to hide, suppress, changing identity, are all aspects of camouflage. I’m also interested in the question of whether phenomenas like masquerade, transvestism, and gender-switching can be read as forms of mimicry and camouflage.”