Viewing Room Main Site

Ola Kolehmainen

Sketches of Spain, studio sessions

Helsinki

September 15 – October 8, 2017

Ola Kolehmainen
Less Less Is Is More More II, 2017
C-print, Diasec
150 x 186 cm
59.06 x 73.23 inches
OKOL_196
Ed 5/6
Ola Kolehmainen
La Caixa I, 2017
Analogue C-type print, Diasec
154 x 193 cm
60.63 x 75.98 inches
OKOL_197
Ed 6
Ola Kolehmainen
Ola Kolehmainen
Archetype XXII, 2017
Archival Ink Jet Print, framed
Framed: 49h x 41w cm
19.29h x 16.14w in
OKOL_001
9/9 + 2 AP
Ola Kolehmainen
Ola Kolehmainen
Archetype XXIV, 2017
Archival Ink Jet Print, framed
Framed: 49h x 41w cm
19.29h x 16.14w in
OKOL_002
9/9 + 2 AP
Ola Kolehmainen
Ola Kolehmainen
Archetype XXIII, 2017
Archival Ink Jet Print, framed
Framed: 49h x 41w cm
19.29h x 16.14w in
OKOL_003
9/9 + 2 AP
Ola Kolehmainen
Ola Kolehmainen
Archetype XII, 2017
49h x 41w cm
19.29h x 16.14w in
OKOL_200
Ed 9/9 + 2 AP
Ola Kolehmainen
Ola Kolehmainen
Archetype XX, 2017
Archival Ink Jet Print, framed
49h x 41w cm
19.29h x 16.14w in
OKOL_204
Ed 9/9 + 2 AP
Ola Kolehmainen
Ola Kolehmainen
Archetype XXI, 2017
Archival Ink Jet Print, framed
49h x 41w cm
19.29h x 16.14w in
OKOL_205
Ed 9/9 + 2 AP

Press Release

Ola Kolehmainen’s (b. 1964) new studio exhibition follows up his recent show at Barcelona’s Galeria SENDA earlier this year. His latest photographs feature modern architecture and its symbolic connotations in Spain, Germany and France. His images capture a vivid sense of spatiality and temporality, yet they also project echoes of the wide spectrum of historical influences that go into shaping the identity of built spaces.

 

Kolehmainen’s photographs visit a point of juncture between the history of architecture and visual arts, revealing, for example, Arabic influences in Spanish modernism. Throughout the 20th century, artists and architects have worked in cross-fertilizing exchange, sharing mutual inspiration, ideas and philosophies. A good example is Kolehmainen’s artwork depicting Ricardo Bofilli’s La Muralla Roja in the city of Calpe in Alicante, which Kolehmainen interprets as owing a debt to The Modulor, the anthropometric scale of proportions devised by Le Corbusier.

 

Kolehmainen studies the buildings he photographs very carefully, shooting them only in natural daylight or using the artificial light already available in the space. His approach is guided more by visual impressions evoked by the architecture than any documented history. The resulting works are a dialogue between the material presence of the building and its immaterial legacy in interplay with light.

 

The Berlin-based artist is a famous name in Finnish photography and a leading figure in the Helsinki School. His work is found in the collections of many international art institutions and foundations from Germany and Spain to renowned Nordic museums such as the Malmö Art Museum and the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art.

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