Viewing Room Main Site

Ola Kolehmainen

Back to Square Black

August 13–September 13, 2020

Ola Kolehmainen

Suprematism Nr. 103 Pantheon, 2020

Archive photo (1933), ink print in artist frame

68 x 48 cm / 26.77 x 18.90 inches

Edition of 6

Ola Kolehmainen

Ola Kolehmainen

Suprematism Nr. 102 eight Burgundy Circles with bulb, 2020

Analogue film, Ink Print in Artist frame

Ola Kolehmainen

Ola Kolehmainen

Oil on Canvas Nr. 2 Armenian Church, 2020

Analogue film, Ink Print in Artist frame

158 x 203 cm/ 62.20 x 79.92 inches

Edition of 4

Ola Kolehmainen

Ola Kolehmainen

Suprematism Nr.114 Black Circles and Orange Circle with Pink,, 2020

Analogue film, Ink Print in Artist frame

164 x 131 cm / 64.57 x 51.57 inches

Edition of 6

ola Kolehmainen

Ola Kolehmainen

Suprematism Nr.111 Esoteric Composition, 2020

Analogue film, ink print in artist frame

206 x 166 cm/ 81.10 x 65.35 inches

Edition of 5

Press Release

Ola Kolehmainen: Back to Square Black – Experimental works 

August 13–September 13, 2020

 

In his new exhibition, Ola Kolehmainen (b. 1964) examines both art history and his own personal timeline. The multi-layered nature of history is the connecting thread that runs through his latest works, which take their cue from The Black Square, the iconic 1915 painting by Kasimir Malevich (1879-1935). With this new show, the black square makes a reprisal in Kolehmainen’s work, for it was already the hero of his graduate exhibition at Kluuvi Gallery in 1997, which highlighted futurist-inspired lightbox pieces and black squares. His latest works are similarly inspired by futurism, constructivism, and minimalism, but it is Malevich – whose work was greatly influenced by church architecture and icons – with whom Kolehmainen has an enduring personal connection.

 

After immersing himself in art history, Kolehmainen grew interested in turning his gaze toward his personal history. His career timeline spans from his abstract graduate exhibition through his Istanbul commission to his later projects photographing church architecture. The countless hours he spent poring over old negatives in the photo archives of the Cologne photo archive marked an important turning point in his career, inspiring him to begin compiling his own archive.

 

Not a single new photograph was taken for this exhibition: for the first time ever, this show consists purely of the artist’s archived material from the early 2000s. Processing these existing images came closer to painting than the genre of photography. Kolehmainen reworked the photographs so that they become almost fictive and acquire new levels of historical significance. The artist describes his process as experimental mixed-media photography. The complex technique involved re-photographing existing images and printing them on a variety of different materials. The process began with the negatives, but the final outcome was impossible to predict.

 

Kolehmainen graduated from the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 1999. The Berlin-based artist is a leading name in Finnish photography. His works are found in numerous major international museums and collections in Germany, Spain, and the Nordic region, including famous institutional collections such as the Malmö Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma.

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