
Ola Kolehmainen
Ein Hauch II, 2017

Photographic detail of International cultural center Oscar Niemeyer, Asturias, Spain. Original …

In his monumental photographs of modern architecture, Ola Kolehmainen zeroes in on a building’s unremarkable details, reducing facades to simple forms and blocks of color evocative of abstract Minimalist paintings. Titles such as “Milano Wall Painting” confirm this notion as much as the images to which they refer—the photographs in this 2010 series feature a mustard-yellow background punctuated by various black and/or off-white linear shapes. Only rarely does an element of a building’s surrounding environment, such as a bird or a cloud, make its way into the frame. Mounted on shiny acrylic glass, the photographs are also notable for their glossiness. Kolehmainen’s work exemplifies the Helsinki School’s dedication to realizing high concept, thematic photographic series.


Photographic detail of International cultural center Oscar Niemeyer, Asturias, Spain. Original built in 2006, by Oscar Niemeyer.

In his monumental photographs of modern architecture, Ola Kolehmainen zeroes in on a building’s unremarkable details, reducing facades to simple forms and blocks of color evocative of abstract Minimalist paintings. Titles such as “Milano Wall Painting” confirm this notion as much as the images to which they refer—the photographs in this 2010 series feature a mustard-yellow background punctuated by various black and/or off-white linear shapes. Only rarely does an element of a building’s surrounding environment, such as a bird or a cloud, make its way into the frame. Mounted on shiny acrylic glass, the photographs are also notable for their glossiness. Kolehmainen’s work exemplifies the Helsinki School’s dedication to realizing high concept, thematic photographic series.