Ola Kolehmainen is one of the first-generation artists of the ‘Helsinki School’. He has become known for his minimalist-abstract approach using 20th and 21st century modern architecture as a starting point. In his works, Kolehmainen examines the meta-level of art and architectural history through a minimalist lens.
Kolehmainen has explored numerous years museums and archives, both as architectural sites and as 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. Kolehmainen has also worked with e.g. Ottoman and Byzantine sacred monuments developing an abstract-constructive way of photographing these historically enriched edifices.
The narrativeness of Kolehmainen’s works re-views the reality and reveals us conversions of structures as the basis of abstract patterns. His use of vivid color further destabilizes conventional perceptions of architectural space, shifting the viewer’s attention from representation to perception itself.
Kolehmainen has graduated from the University of Art and Design Helsinki and also studied at the University of Helsinki. He has accomplished over 60 solo exhibitions, published five monographs, and participated in numerous group exhibitions around the world. His works have been shown e.g. at the Helsinki Art Museum, Alvar Aalto Museum in Jyväskylä, the Finnish National Gallery, the National Museum of Sweden in Stockholm, the National Museum of Norway in Oslo, the State Art Library in Berlin, EMMA - Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, The New Art Gallery Walsall, 17th Biennale of Sydney, 1st Kyiv Biennale, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Whitechapel Gallery, London, Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, Vaasa, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Kunsthalle, Helsinki, Es Baluard Museu d'Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma, Palma de Majorca, Spain and Kulturhaus Obere Stufe, Stein am Rhein, Switzerland.
Kolehmainen’s works are included in collections such as the Anita and Poju Zabludowicz Collection, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the European Central Bank, Helsinki Art Museum, the Finnish National Gallery, the National Museum of Norway and Société Générale in France, Carnegie Museum of Art, Borusan Contemporary and Elgiz Museum, Istanbul, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, the Saastamoinen Collection, the Miettinen Collection, Jerry I. Speyer Collection, New York and DZ Bank, Germany. In 2015 The Royal Institute of British Architects awarded Kolehmainen the RIBA honorary Fellowship.