
F (Ben Stiller - Bilder die Ähnlichkeit haben mit meinem Vater)
A spare, reductive canvas by David Ostrowski balances gestural restraint with deliberate accident, combining oil, lacquer, and collaged paper into a composition that feels both casual and considered. The work embodies Ostrowski's signature approach of embracing incompleteness, where thinly applied paint and raw surface tension carry more meaning than any fully resolved image. The enigmatic title—referencing Ben Stiller and a likeness to the artist's father—introduces a quietly personal, almost absurdist layer of autobiography beneath the painting's cool, minimal exterior.
- Medium
- oil, lacquer, paper collage on canvas
- Location
- Phillips, Salt Lake City, UT
- Spotted At
- Auction House · PhillipsView on map
🔨 Auction Lot
Contemporary Art Day Sale
November 14, 2014
More by David Ostrowski
Artists in conversation

Sergej Jensen
Danish · b. 1973

Jensen works with raw, unprimed canvas and sparse mark making that embraces emptiness and surface tension in ways that closely mirror Ostrowski's reductive approach. Both artists treat incompleteness as a compositional strategy, allowing thinly applied materials and exposed ground to carry conceptual weight.
Michaela Eichwald
German · b. 1967
Eichwald combines lacquer, oil, and collaged elements on unconventional supports with a deliberately casual, accidental quality that aligns directly with Ostrowski's mixed media process. Her work similarly navigates the space between gestural abstraction and conceptual restraint within a contemporary German painting context.

Kerstin Brätsch
German · b. 1979

Brätsch explores large format painting with layered, translucent materials and a muted palette that echoes the oil and lacquer combinations central to this Ostrowski piece. Her practice shares a similar tension between deliberate gesture and accidental surface effects within a conceptually framed abstract painting tradition.
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