Born 1964 | Lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Ola Kolehmainen is one of the first generation artists of the “Helsinki School”. He became known for his minimalist-abstract approach using 20th and 21st century modern architecture as a starting point.
In recent years his minimalist eye has focused on the meta-level of the history of art and architecture. The turning point came in 2014 with a commission assigned by the museum Borusan Contemporary in Istanbul, when Kolehmainen worked with Ottoman and Byzantine sacred monuments developing an abstract-constructive way of photographing these historically enriched edifices.
In 2015 The Royal Institute of British Architects awarded Kolehmainen the RIBA honorary Fellowship. December 2017 – March 2018 Helsinki Art Museum premiered a large-scale exhibition of Kolehmainen works, Sacred Places.
He has accomplished over 60 solo exhibitions, 5 monographs, and participated in numerous Group exhibitions around the world.
In Kolehmainen’s latest work, he has been exploring numerous years museums and archives both as architectural sites and shells for collections. He is in a process of creating a memory theatre of our own time: an in-depth journey to the history of science, art, experiments and experiences. Kolehmainen presents places, spaces, people and works that open new routes into the history of Western thought.