Jennifer Samet interviews painter Albert Oehlen on the occasion of his exhibition Elevator Paintings: Trees at Gagosian Gallery, New York, on view through April 15, 2017.

Oehlen comments: “I decided to make painting, but I wasn’t coming from painting in the sense of needing to hold a brush and smear paint. Rather, it was a decision, as part of a chain of reactions: How do I set it up? Do I need a style? No. What do I do with color? I didn’t know, so I found a vehicle to get rid of that problem, which was a couple of rules. It made my concerns obvious.”