Artist as Collector: David Ohlerking Collects on His Daughter’s Behalf

David Ohlerking is on the road a lot, painting for himself and for commissions, and participating in artist residencies. But he still collects art — on behalf of his child.

Ohlerking doesn’t hesitate when asked to discuss three pieces from his collection, and all three paintings had personal connections for him. And the purpose for the collection is personal as well. “My whole collection belongs to my little pupchild,” says Ohlerking. “When she is old enough to go to college, she will own an Alex Kanevsky painting and sell it off to go to school. The pupchild [Jocelyn] and I paint together. She is the best thing in the world.”

The first piece on Ohlerking’s list is by Jennifer Pochinski. The painting prompts Ohlerking to bring up Les Nabis painters for the first time in our conversation. The Nabis were post-impressionist painters in France who embraced flatness in their compositions and used bold or surprising colors. The word nabi means prophet in Hebrew and Arabic. Ohlerking clearly feels a kindred spirit with the Nabis, especially Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard. And he sees a bit of Nabi in Pochinski’s oil painting in his collection. “Jennifer is a friend of mine who lives in Sacramento. We traded paintings,” says Ohlerking. “She reminds of the Nabis — there’s more shapes than the illusion of shapes in her work.”

Next is a piece by Chris Chappell. “He’s my best friend,” Ohlerking says. “He and I had an art gallery in Texas, and we hired models every Monday and Tuesday, then showed the work on Saturday. We painted together so much that our styles sort of look similar. It was sort of a punk-rock gallery — people brought chips and we would have a keg of beer. I like how violent he is in his painting. Chris is calm when he paints, but he crashes right into something pretty and screws it up. The marks are aggressive; he is putting the pretty thing up and beating the heck of it, then doing it again, and in the end, it really feels and looks like the space.”

Last is a piece painted on paper made from minerals — stone paper — by a Pennsylvania artist Ohlerking considers the greatest living painter: Alex Kanevsky. How did he get a piece by this acclaimed artist? “I told him I needed one for the pupchild, and he went through my art and picked a piece as a trade,” recalls Ohlerking. “It’s crazy for me because I think he is the best painter in the world. It’s nuts what he can do with that small a space. It really hurts my feelings because I have been painting small and it’s hard to get all that in a small format.”

Kanevsky has served as a mentor for Ohlerking for several years. “I was working for stockbrokers answering phones, and I saw his website and e-mailed him,” says Ohlerking. “He said, ‘Do you want me to critique your work?’ I was pretty arrogant, and he took my art apart, he saw everything, he could tell which pieces were from life, everything. I had always wanted a ‘Kung Fu’ ‘Grasshopper’ kind of relationship with someone, a mentor. Every year he would send me a long e-mail. Pretty much anything he says to do, I’ll do it. The biggest deal is how he emotionally manipulates with color. He knows everything.”