Olga Balema

The Third Dimension is a show of new sculptures by Olga Balema; an elaboration on a series of transparent sculptures made by fusing and bending thin sheets of plastic. They come together in real time, produced in varying light conditions without sketches or drawings. They are fast, but the process allows various edits and re-configurations.

Each work has qualities that overlap with the 'real world' but they do not depict or reference anything specific.

The shapes are not rectangles, they are not packaging nor buildings; they are not Richard Serras; however the exposure to those things has shaped the works in the way that being around a favorite person can influence the way one laughs or starts saying "oh boy’’. Circumstance and repetition lurking beneath the surface of our twisted reality determine a lot. The artist's intention forms patterns into series, arrangements, wall pieces, and descriptive texts. It tries to figure out the thing found on the way somewhere else.

Olga Balema (b. 1984, Ukraine) is an artist living and working in New York. She received her MFA in New Genres from UCLA and subsequently attended the Rijksakademie as a resident, as well as Skowhegan. Balema is the 2023 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2017 and 2021 recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. She has participated in national and international group exhibitions in venues including White Columns, New York (2023); Bridget Donahue, New York (2022); Greene Naftali, New York (2021); Fri Art, Fribourg, Switzerland (2019); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2018); Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Sankt Gallen (2018); High Art, Paris (2017); Croy Nielsen, Vienna (2017); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2016); and in exhibitions including The Baltic Triennial 13, Vilnius (2018); 2015 Surround Sound Trien-nial, New Museum, New York (2015); and was a participant in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Balema has held solo and two-person exhibitions at venues including Hannah Hoffman, Los Angeles (2023 and 2017)Croy Nielsen, Vienna (2022); Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin (2022); Camden Art Centre, London (2021); Bridget Donahue, New York (2019); Swiss Institute, New York (2016); and Kunstverein Nürnberg, Nürnberg (2015).