Erwin Olaf's Biography
ERWIN OLAF IS REPRESENTED EXCLUSIVELY IN THE UNITED STATES BY HASTED HUNT.

Hasted Hunt will present new work by photographer and filmmaker, Erwin Olaf in an exhibition opening on January 5, 2006 and running through March 2006. Hasted Hunt will debut two series of photographic work: RAIN and the specially commissioned HOPE with their accompanying videos.

These images are staged domestic narratives depicting enigmatic moments with individuals or couples - as Olaf describes it - just at an instant of indecision or consideration. This is not Henri Cartier–Bresson’s “decisive moment” but rather the half-second after you receive bad news but before you react. The characters seem to be dyspeptic mid-Westerners out of Norman Rockwell paintings. There is an air of tentativeness and secrecy. The color seems oddly diluted or drained.

Wildly inventive, iconoclastic, colorful, sexy, often rude, often disorienting, the artist has a unique contemporary vision and complete technical mastery of digital technology. Olaf satirizes middle class behaviors - fashion, advertising, and culture. At the same time he works very successfully within the commercial world with international clients like Diesel, Kohler, Microsoft, BMW, Nokia, Virgin and Nike.

Mr. Olaf lives and works in The Netherlands and enjoys a major reputation in Europe with more than a dozen museum and gallery exhibitions scheduled for the near future in his native country and Russia, Poland, Spain and Denmark. His work is represented in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Gemeentemueum Den Haag and the ABN AMRO Collection among others. “Perverse Elegance”, a major retrospective will travel in Australia in 2006. He is directing and producing a new film titled “Captain Tom”. His most recent retrospective book is Silver (2003).

Mr. Olaf’s debut at Hasted Hunt is his first major exhibition in the United States since 2001.



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ERWIN OLAF
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