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Olga Balema

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Olga Balema
Born
Olga Balema

1984 (age 39–40)
Lviv, Ukraine
Alma materUniversity of Iowa,
University of California, Los Angeles
Known forsculpture

Olga Balema (born 1984) is a Ukrainian-born American artist and sculptor. Her practice presents mundane materials in bodily and evocative forms, eroding the binary between human/nonhuman.[1] She is based in New York City, New York.[2]

Biography

Olga Balema was born in 1984 in Lviv, Ukraine. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (2006) in sculpture from University of Iowa, and a Master of Fine Arts (2009) in new genres at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).[3][4]

In 2021 and 2017, Balema was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant.[5][4]

Work

Balema's work is known for its attention to the body as an amalgamation of biology, technology, desire, and language.[2] While the body is absent, it is often evoked or gestured to, "break[ing] down the predictable binaries of subject/object, matter/language, body/writing, instead looping through and among them, nonhierarchically."[2] Her poetic titles often reference posthuman literature and layer over the "corporeal metaphors of their forms."[2] Her playfully disturbing pieces, ranging from abstracted bags of fluids with metal boning to rough wooden troughs in John Deere paint, highlight the fluid nature of human bodies, and thus the 'human' as category itself.[6]

Threat to Civilization 1-3 (2015)

Balema's 2015 show, Cannibals, exhibited her Threat to Civilization and Border/Boundary sculpture series. In her trademark style, Threat to Civilization 1-3 features PVC sacs of steel rods from past sculptural pieces soaking in water. Over time, the metal corrodes, leaving the sealed off and yet highly affective sacs at varying stages of decay and color, from yellow to red.[2] The pieces, cannibalizing themselves, point to "the pleasure and pain of decay, and in that decay’s framing" while calling viewers to see themselves embodied in the strangely anthropomorphic forms.[2] The regenerating matter does not disappear, but transform, reminding viewers that mortality is not an end or disappearance, but simply one stage in the fluid process of becoming.[6]

Regulatory Bodies (2015)

From her first solo show, the Regulatory Bodies series includes Regulatory Bodies/FDA, Regulatory Bodies/USDA, Regulatory Bodies/EFSA, and Regulatory Bodies/WHO, all rusting steel sheets dangling from the ceiling spelling out their respective agency names in rotting cucumber slices.[7] The series questions not just who and what constitutes a body, but who then controls the body.[7] While a genuine critique of the agencies that regulate and determine what people in the U.S. eat (and thus are!), the pieces also mock their own seriousness and maintain a unique humor.[7]

become a stranger to yourself (2017)

Another work of fluid filled plastic, become a stranger to yourself is stuffed with drawings of red lines that look like blood vessels and organ-like red materials alongside metal and ivory strings.[8] As if a petri dish for the concept of "body," the work blooms with different uncanny signifiers for human bodies.[8] The sac rests on the floor heavily, undoing viewers' understandings of the human/nonhuman, internal/external, subject/object binaries.[7]

brain damage series (2019)

The brain damage show included 13 works (numbered 1-13) of elastic bands spread across the floor of the gallery room, as if a distributed nervous system.[9] The bands, painted, stretched, ripped, nailed to walls, taut, curled like ribbons, and more, lay mainly flat on the ground.[10] 2, one of the few vertical elements, stretches a few feet above the floor, with some of the painted elastic pieces hanging and others nailed to the floor at an angle.[9] While there are connections between bands, the work is uneasy, "worn and stretched, jerry-rigged and encrusted with wear and time."[11] This illegible map, obstacle course, or nervous system disrupts the viewer's desire for meaning and relationality, making visible the damage to connection.[12] Several pieces feature nails attached only to the bands, dangling uselessly.[9] The work is "definitely reduced, but not minimal," almost excessive in its strangeness, playing with static and dynamic forms.[13] Some have considered the piece a "feminist homage" in response to the historically male-dominated genre of minimalism.[14]

Computer (2021)

Balema's first solo exhibition in the UK, Computer presented a single sculpture, a massive digital rendering of a carpet, printing in pieces and reformed in a grid. Made in both her studio and on the street in New York, the pixelated piece is a depository, marked by traces of Balema’s psyche and the city streets.[15] The work abstracts space and installation art itself while highlighting the "circulation and machinations of image production."[16]

Exhibitions

Select exhibitions include

  • 2015 – Surround Audience, New Museum Triennial. New Museum, New York City, New York.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ Edmonson, Tess (2015-12-10). "Olga Balema". Frieze. No. 176. ISSN 0962-0672. Retrieved 2021-11-17.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "OPENINGS: OLGA BALEMA". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  3. ^ "One for All | Olga Balema: Early Man, Apr 15 - May 19 2016". Swiss Institute. swissinstitute.net. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  4. ^ a b "First solo UK institutional exhibition by Olga Balema on view at Camden Art Centre". artdaily.cc. August 23, 2021. Retrieved 2021-12-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Greenberger, Maximilíano Durón,Tessa Solomon,Alex; Durón, Maximilíano; Solomon, Tessa; Greenberger, Alex (2021-06-21). "ARTnews in Brief: Kurt Tong Wins $87,000 Photography Award—and More from June 25, 2021". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2021-12-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ a b "Olga Balema's New Work Cannibalizes Her Old at LISTE". Artsy. 2015-06-17. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  7. ^ a b c d Edmonson, Tess (2015-12-10). "Olga Balema". Frieze. No. 176. ISSN 0962-0672. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  8. ^ a b "Review: Bone, organs, scars: At Hannah Hoffman, a surreal and sculptural exploration of the body". Los Angeles Times. 2017-03-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ a b c Howe, David Everitt (2019-08-22). "Olga Balema's Rubber Band Works Show How Less Can Be More". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  10. ^ Howe, David Everitt (2019-08-22). "Olga Balema's Rubber Band Works Show How Less Can Be More". ARTnews.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ "Wire and String: Olga Balema's Sinewy Abjection". Momus. 2019-07-26. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  12. ^ Farley, Amelia (2019-07-09). "Olga Balema: brain damage". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  13. ^ "Olga Balema "brain damage"". www.nyartbeat.com. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  14. ^ "New York Galleries: What to See Right Now". The New York Times. 2019-07-18. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  15. ^ "London – Olga Balema: "Computer" at Camden Art Center Through August 29th, 2021". Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  16. ^ "Olga Balema "Computer" Camden Art Centre / London |". Flash Art. 2021-07-20. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  17. ^ Cotter, Holland (26 February 2015). "Review: New Museum Triennial Casts a Wary Eye on the Future". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  18. ^ "2019 Whitney Biennial Announces Participating Artists". Artforum. 25 February 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
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