Kühnemann’s artistic starting point is his love of painting, which drives him to experiment creatively with the portrayal of objects and so to extend the limits of his own personal form of expression. The appearance of an object, a certain music, the texture of a fabric inspire the creative process for him. The artist connects with the material and allows himself to be touched by it intuitively; from this an idea emerges. Playing with an expression of these ideas and influences through diverse types of painting is the focal point of his work.
His mode of expression is linked decisively to his biography: born in Switzerland as the son of German parents, he grew up with the German language; soon, however, the family moved to Canada and then on to Israel, where he learnt Hebrew (the language in which he still feels most at home, even today). At the age of 16 he went to England and later to New York, where he learnt English. These changes in language and different means of expression in each case can also be found in Kühnemann’s work.
In recent years Kühnemann – inspired by the aesthetics of his childhood photos – has been working on large-format paintings on wood, in which he transformed components of specific photos and reassembled them into something new, whereby this was not so much about telling a story as about the painterly transformation of identity.
The works in Paintings, A4 and some things take up this transformation process and continue it. Now, it is no longer family albums that he uses as his original models but specific forms, colours and objects, which run like a thread through several works. What emerges are several boxes, which serve as frames for series of works – all with a specific object painted in oils on sheets of A4 paper. Kühnemann’s typical approach is displayed in these works, as well: playing with possibilities, creating the unexpected, and breaking through routines.

Olaf Kühnemann is currently living and working in Berlin where he is participating in our International Studio Programme with kind support from Christine Thuß-Kreutzträger and Arnd Kreutzträger.