Ola Kolehmainen (b. 1964, Helsinki, Finland) is one of Finland's leading contemporary photographers and an internationally recognised representative of the Helsinki School. For more than three decades, he has developed a distinctive photographic practice that explores the relationship between architecture, light, colour and perception. Moving beyond documentary representation, his works transform buildings, interiors and cultural landmarks into contemplative images that dissolve the boundaries between photography, painting and abstraction.
After studying journalism at the University of Helsinki, Kolehmainen received his Master of Arts in Photography from the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 1993. Since 2005, he has lived and worked in Berlin, a city whose architectural and cultural history has become an important source of inspiration throughout his career.
Although architecture often serves as the starting point for his photographs, Kolehmainen's work is ultimately concerned with perception itself. Through reflections, transparency, colour and the choreography of natural light, he creates images that invite prolonged observation rather than immediate recognition. His photographs reveal architecture not as a fixed physical reality but as a constantly shifting visual experience shaped by light, memory and time.
Throughout his career, Kolehmainen has worked closely with architects, museums and cultural institutions, developing projects that investigate the dialogue between contemporary photography and architectural history. His photographs frequently engage with iconic works of architecture by figures such as Alvar Aalto and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, while more recent bodies of work expand this investigation into museums, historical collections and the visual memory of European civilisation. Rather than documenting cultural heritage, Kolehmainen reinterprets it through photography, transforming familiar spaces into quiet, meditative images that encourage new ways of seeing.
Recent series such as MVSEVM, Vniversum et Mvsevm and The Art of Looking and Seeing further develop this exploration by bringing together architecture, art history and collective memory. Inspired by museums, churches, palaces and historical collections throughout Europe, these works establish a dialogue between past and present, questioning how cultural memory is preserved, experienced and continually reinterpreted through the act of seeing.
Kolehmainen has exhibited extensively throughout Europe for more than three decades. His work has been presented in numerous museums and institutions, including Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf; Haus am Waldsee, Berlin; Pitzhanger Manor House and Gallery, London; Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul; the Alvar Aalto Museum, Jyväskylä; KUNTSI Museum of Modern Art, Vaasa; the National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen; and most recently the Miettinen Collection, Berlin.
His photographs are represented in many important public and private collections worldwide, including Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, the Finnish Museum of Photography, Ateneum Art Museum, Saastamoinen Foundation, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, the National Museum of Photography, Denmark, the Miettinen Collection, the European Central Bank Collection, Deutsche Bank Collection, Borusan Collection and numerous other institutional and private collections across Europe, North America and Asia.
In recognition of his contribution to contemporary photography and architecture, Kolehmainen was awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2015. In 2024, he was Artist in Residence at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max Planck Institute, continuing his long-standing engagement with the relationship between photography, architecture and the history of art.
Education
1993
MA in Photography, University of Art and Design Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
1988
Studies in Journalism, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Awards & Residencies
2024
Artist in Residence, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max Planck Institute, Florence, Italy
2015
Honorary Fellowship, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London, UK
2013–2014
Artist in Residence, Goethe-Institut, Istanbul, Turkey
2004
Artist in Residence, Berlin, Germany
2001
Artist in Residence, Brussels, Belgium
Selected solo exhibitions
2024
The Art of Looking and Seeing: Theater of Memory, Miettinen Collection, Berlin, Germany
The Art of Looking and Seeing, Kulturhaus Obere Stufe, Stein am Rhein, Switzerland
Ola Kolehmainen with Raimo Utriainen, Finlayson Factory, Tampere, Finland
Galerie Ruzicska, Salzburg, Austria
2023
Vniversum et Mvsevm, Gallery BGE, Stavanger, Norway
2021–2022
MVSEVM, Galerie Ruzicska, Salzburg, Austria
2021
Back to Square Black, Galerie Stefan Vogdt, Munich, Germany
2020–2021
MVSEVM Works, Mirko Mayer Gallery, Cologne, Germany
2020
Back to Square Black, Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland
2019
COELN. Cathedral of Light, St. Joseph Chapel, Cologne, Germany
2018
Sacred Spaces, BGE Contemporary Art Projects, Stavanger, Norway
Galerie der Moderne, Munich, Germany
Galerie Senda, Barcelona, Spain
2017
Sacred Spaces, Helsinki Art Museum (HAM), Helsinki, Finland
Sketches of Spain, Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland
Sinan Project, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey
It Never Entered My Mind, Gallery Brandstrup, Oslo, Norway
Sketches of Spain, Galeria Senda, Barcelona, Spain
2015
Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, UK
Sense of Volume, Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland
2014
Reason & Intuition, Pitzhanger Manor House and Gallery, London, UK
Geometric Light, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Germany
2012
The First Kyiv International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Kyiv, Ukraine
Enlightenment, Alvar Aalto Museum, Jyväskylä, Finland
2010
A Building Is Not a Building, KUNTSI Museum of Modern Art, Vaasa, Finland
2009
A Building Is Not a Building, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
The National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Denmark
The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall, UK
Selected group exhibitions
2025
Katson Kohti Maata (Looking Towards the Earth), Kunsthalle Helsinki, Finland
Exit Paradise, Miettinen Collection, Potsdam, Germany
Where Are We Now, Philara Collection, Düsseldorf, Germany
In anderen Händen, Miettinen Collection, Berlin, Germany
2024
Experiments in Concretism, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland
Air, Paimio Sanatorium, Paimio, Finland
2022–2023
Tracing Absence, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
2020
Inspiration. Iconic Images, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden
Inspiration. Iconic Images, Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland
2019
Touch, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland
2018
Unboxing Photographs, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2016
Art from Elsewhere, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol, UK
Art from Elsewhere, Towner, Eastbourne, UK
SCRIPT, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey
2014
Spuren der Moderne, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany
Splendid Views – Works from the Miettinen Collection, Berlin, Germany
2013
Inside Outside Architecture, National Museum of Art, Oslo, Norway
Stadt in Sicht – Werke aus der Sammlung Deutsche Bank, Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany
Metropolis, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK
2011
Helsinki School, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland
Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, UK
2010
17th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Inaugural Exhibition, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland
Public & Private Collections
Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA
Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland
Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland
EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland
National Museum of Art, Oslo, Norway
National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Denmark
Museum of Contemporary Art, Madrid, Spain
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany
Miettinen Collection, Helsinki & Berlin
Saastamoinen Foundation, Espoo, Finland
State of Finland Art Collection
European Central Bank Collection, Frankfurt, Germany
European Investment Bank Collection, Luxembourg
Deutsche Bank Collection, Germany
DZ Bank Collection, Germany
Borusan Collection, Istanbul, Turkey
Carnegie Collection, USA
Kouri Collection, New York, USA
Jerry I. Speyer Collection, New York, USA
Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK
Peter W. Klein Collection, Germany
Peter C. Ruppert Collection, Germany
Florian Peters-Messer Collection, Germany
Colección Pilar Citoler, Madrid, Spain
Fundación Centro Ordóñez-Falcón de Fotografía, Spain
Malmö Art Museum, Sweden
State Art Council, Stockholm, Sweden
Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne, Germany
as well as numerous corporate and private collections throughout Europe, North America and Asia.
Selected Monographs
2022
Tracing Absence
2020
Inspiration. Iconic Images
2019
COELN. Cathedral of Light
2017
It's All One History, Almost
2014
Geometric Light
2009
A Building Is Not a Building
2007
Abstraction, Fraction, Recreation
2004
Search for Mastery
