Whitney Biennial 2019
May 17–Oct 27, 2019
Olga Balema
3
Floor 6
Born 1984 in Lviv, Ukraine
Lives in New York, NY
Olga Balema uses a wide range of found and fabricated objects in her sculptures and installations, referencing art history, cinema, literature, and personal narratives. Consistent throughout all of her work, however, is her interest in the notion of discomfort. In two of the works shown in the Biennial, Balema suspends unusual materials such as latex and fabric over metal armatures, creating a sense of unease. In Bread of Life, for example, she roughly wraps a length of beige tulle over steel rods, emphasizing the tension between these two material elements.
Bread of Life, 2016
Olga Balema, Bread of Life, 2016. Tulle, latex, steel, 43 × 22 × 19 in. (109.2 × 55.9 × 48.3 cm). Image courtesy the artist and Hannah Hoffman, Los Angeles