Olga Balema
On The Brink Of My Sexy Apocalypse
January 25 - March 11, 2017
1010 N Highland Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038
“This story may not always seem artificial, and in spite of me you may recognize in it the call of the blood: the reason is that within my night I shall have happened to strike my forehead at some door, freeing an anguished memory that had been haunting me since the world began. Forgive me for it.”
- from Our Lady Of The Flowers by Jean Genet
Olga Balema (b. 1984, Lviv, Ukraine) lives and works in New York, NY and Berlin, Germany. She holds an MFA from UCLA, Los Angeles and has had residencies at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, USA. Recent solo exhibitions include: Early Man, Swiss Institute, New York, NY (2016); Blasted Health, Capri, Düsseldorf, Germany (2016); One reenters the garden by becoming a vegetable, Kunstverein Nürnberg, Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft, Nuremberg, Germany (2015); Cannibals, Croy Nielsen, Berlin, Germany (2015); Her Curves, High Art, Paris, France (2015). Recent group exhibitions include: I Am Still Alive – On the Materialities of Life, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2016); Adhesive Products, Bergen Assembly, Bergen, Norway (2016); Function Follows Vision, Vision Follows Reality, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria (2015); Surround Audience, Triennial, New Museum, New York, NY (2015); Puddle, pothole, portal, Sculpture Center, New York, NY (2014); Doom: Surface Control, Le Magasin Grenoble, Grenoble, France (2014); Nature after Nature, Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany (2014).
Olga Balema, mouthful of shadows, 2016. Tulle, latex, steel. 35 x 23 x 21 inches (88.9 x 58.4 x 53.3 cm)
Olga Balema, a thin skin under which a gigantic cauldron of blazing fire was blazing, 2016. Latex, Magic Sculpt. 5 x 9 x 14 inches (12.7 x 22.9 x 35.6 cm)
Olga Balema, Bread of Life, 2016. Tulle, latex, steel. 43 x 22 x 19 inches (109.2 x 55.9 x 48.3 cm)
Olga Balema, Thief in the night, 2016. Tulle, latex, steel. 21 x 24 x 44 inches (53.3 x 61 x 111.8 cm)
Olga Balema Manifestations of our own wickedness and future idiocy, 2017. Rowlux Paper, steel, photographs. 100 x 204 x 80 inches (254 x 518.2 x 203.2 cm)
Olga Balema, A thing filled with evil streams, 2016. Wood, latex, Magic Sculpt, cell phone motors, batteries. 31 x 8 x 7 inches (78.7 x 20.3 x 17.8 cm)
Olga Balema, fractures, 2017. Soft PVC, water, paper, steel. 54 x 20 x 2 inches (137.2 x 50.8 x 5.1 cm)
Olga Balema, Everyone grows relief, 2016. Steel, fabric, latex, glue, water. 21 x 12 x 16 inches (33 x 53.3 x 40.6 cm)
Olga Balema, become a stranger to yourself, 2017. Soft PVC, water, steel, fabric, latex, photographs, silicone. 55 x 30 x 3 inches (139.7 x 76.2 x 7.6 cm)
Olga Balema, drives, 2017. Soft PVC, latex, water, steel, tulle, clips. 54 x 21 x 2 1/2 inches (137.2 x 53.3 x 6.4 cm)
Olga Balema, the look, 2017. Soft PVC, water, latex. 54 x 20 x 2 1/2 inches (137.2 x 50.8 x 6.4 cm)
Olga Balema, Notes from the Capital, 2016. Latex, steel, wool fabric, fabric. 37 x 19 x 78 inches (94 x 48.3 x 198.1 cm)
Olga Balema, Moods, 2016. Tulle, latex, steel, Magic Sculpt. 13 x 15 x 39 inches (33 x 38.1 x 99.1 cm)
Olga Balema, Compassion, 2017. Monitor, video loop, vinyl. 62 x 19 x 38 inches (157.5 x 48.3 x 96.5 cm)
Olga Balema, la cienega, 2016. Colored pencil, watercolor on paper. 10 1/2 x 11 inches (26.7 x 27.9 cm)