Olaf Kühnemann
Olaf Kühnemann (born November 24, 1972 in Basel ) is an Israeli-German painter. Kühnemann lives and works in Berlin and Tel Aviv .
Life and education
Olaf Kühnemann was born in 1972 to German parents. Up to the age of four he grew up in Arlesheim in a family that was strongly influenced by anthroposophy , on which the faith and professional activity of his parents were based. Because of his parents' divorce and his mother's second marriage to the Israeli professor Shimon Levi, the family moved to Montreal in 1977 and to Herzliya in 1980 .
In Herzliya, Kühnemann met his first art teacher, the sculptor Zvi Lachman. During his childhood and youth he studied painting with Lachman and became an apprentice in his studio. From 1987 to 1988 Kühnemann studied at the Michael Hall anthroposophical college in East Sussex , England , after which he returned to Israel. At the age of 18 he moved to New York . There he took private art lessons from the painter David Paulson, after which he switched to the New Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture (1990–1992), where he a. a. was tutored by Rosemarie Beck, Ruth Miller and Bruce Gagnier. After graduating, Kühnemann began a master's degree at the Parson School of Design (1992–1994), where he completed his Master of Fine Arts with Glen Goldberg, Bruce Gagnier and Esteban Vicente, among others.
In 1994 he returned to Israel and joined the Givon Art Gallery as an assistant. During the following eight years he worked with Israeli artists such as Moshe Gershuni, Micha Ullmann , Yair Garbuz, Uri Katzenstein, Raffi Lavie and others.
Kühnemann is married to Tal Alon, the founder and editor of Spitz Magazine, the first Hebrew-language magazine in Germany since the Holocaust . He has two sons.
2000-2009
Kühnemann's work between 2000 and 2009 was based on dealing with family photographs from different phases of his own life and that of his family (Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Israel, the Netherlands, USA).
2009-2013
Kühnemann moved to Berlin with the intention of expanding his artistic and professional boundaries. The new surroundings and the cultural contexts were expressed in an intensive search and numerous experiments in his studio. During these years he still used family photographs as a reference point, but was also on the lookout for a new, more abstract imagery that was not based on an externally dictated narrative. In works from this period, photographs represent only a conceptual reference point that dissolves into abstraction.
2014-2017
In this phase he completely detached himself from photos and external images and consciously tried to paint without creating narratives or motifs whose reference would be recognizable. Kühnemann continued to develop ideas around abstraction and free association while experimenting with the creation of a paper workspace in which his direct and indirect work process could accumulate: newspapers used to cover the floor became works of art, likewise bicycle parts, skin peelings from fruits, background music. At this point Kühnemann decided to collect the by-products of his work instead of selling them artistically.
In 2015 he received a residency grant from Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin.
Solo exhibitions (selection)
- 1995: Painting and Drawing, Zvi Lachman's Private Workshop, Herzliya, Israel
- 1999: Golem , Start Art Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
- 2005: Family Papers (It's Me: Auto / biography) , Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel
- 2007: Homescapes , The Heder Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
- 2007: Hornby Island , Tel Aviv Artists' Studios, Israel
- 2008: Family, Tree, Gallery 39 for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
- 2009: MDF Woods , Art + Hotel, Tel Aviv, Israel Permanent installation
- 2009: Klassen / Layers , Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie, Bielefeld
- 2010: Outside-in , Pavillon am Milchhof, Berlin, (in collaboration with schir - art concepts).
- 2011–2012: Balancing Acts , Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
- 2012: Painting installation, collaboration between Eva & Bernard fashion label and Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin | Beijing at Mercedes-Benz Berlin fashion week
- 2012: Disposition , Upstairs Gallery, Meyerbohlenoldenburg, Oldenburg
- 2014: Turpentine Dreams , Feinberg Projects, Tel Aviv, Israel
- 2015: Heartworn Highways , CIRCLE1, Berlin
- 2015: HERE , Duo exhibition, Galerie Franzkowiak, Berlin
- 2015: Paintings, A4 and some things | וכמה דברים A4, ציורים | Painting, A4 and a few things , Künstlerhaus Bethanien , Berlin
- 2017: Small, Das Kleine Format , Upstairs Gallery, Oldenburg
Awards
- 1992/93: Two Awards of Excellence for Painting, National Arts Club, Manhattan NY, USA
- 1994: Scholarship for Arts , Parsons School of Design, Manhattan NY, USA
- 2008: Isracard Award , Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel
- 2014: Jurors' Pick, 100 Painters of Tomorrow, Thames & Hudson
Teaching
- 2003–2009: HaMidrasha Faculty of the Arts, Kfar-Sava, Israel
- 2005–2007: Hatachana, Tel Aviv, Israel.
- 2007–2009: Avni institute of Art and Design, Tel Aviv, Israel
Collections
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Bank Hapoalim Collection, ORS Doron Sabag Collection, Igal Ahuvi Collection, Givon Gallery Collection, Anette Bollag-Rothschild Collection, Judith Yovel Recanati Collection, Ifat Gurion Collection and various private collections in Israel, Germany, Switzerland, USA and Tonga.
Web links
- Olaf Kühnemann website
- Deutschlandradio Kultur, interview , December 2013
- Olaf Kühnemann, melancholic, Gerhard Charles Rump, die Welt, March 2009
- Lili Eylon, interview with Olaf Kühnemann, die Welt, October 2009
Individual evidence
- ↑ KB | Olaf Kühnemann. Accessed June 7, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Olaf Kühnemann. Retrieved June 7, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kühnemann, Olaf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Israeli-German painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 24, 1972 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Basel |