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The Finnish photographer Ola Kolehmainen (Helsinki, 1964) presents his second Solo Show in SENDA gallery entitled “Alvar Aalto”, alluding to the famous Finnish architect. The exhibited pieces are not only based on the architecture by Alvar Aalto (such as Villa Mairea and the Paimio Sanatorium), but also refer to him conceptually.
The architecture is the protagonist of Ola Kolehmainen’s work, but in contrast to Architectural Photography, the artist is not interested in recognizing buildings. Through a careful selection of details, he instead creates particular autonomies and also abstract compositions of images.
The artist is impressed by the structural component of the buildings, taking into consideration its fraction and its regularity. Therewith, architecture leaves its three-dimensional characteristic and becomes an abstract object.
In his latest works, which compose the exhibition dedicated to Alvar Aalto, the reflecting surfaces of some of the buildings play the main role and they even gain a metaphorical sense: the immateriality of the reflection makes the artist think about the idea of presence and absence.
In the pieces Moment of Contemplation (2008), Autumn Leaves (2008), Trace of Human (2008) and Presence (2009), architectural elements barely appear in the reflection of the space. In addition to the architecture, the photographer uses natural elements for his composure and abstraction gets the primary role.
Ola Kolehmainen’s big-scale photographies underlie an exuberant production, referred to as “Diasec process”, which achieves an intensified deep optical effect and keeps the luminosity of the photograph thanks to the applied acrylic glass. Photography is put beyond our visible competence, where the eye can not see but only imagine.
Ola Kolehmainen lives and works in Berlin. He recently exhibited his itinerary retrospective “A Building is not a Building” at Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, at the National Museum of Photography of Copenhagen, at the New Art Gallery of Walsall (England) and at the KUNTSI, Museum of Modern Art of Wasa (Finland). He further participated in a group exhibition about Finnish photography in the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2009) and is currently participating in the 17th Biennale of Sydney with his most recent project “South of home – Journey of a mind”. His work forms part of different public and private collections all over the world, such as Pilar Citoler collection in Madrid, the European Central Bank collection of Frankfurt am Main, or the KIASMA of Helsinki.
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