Olaf Nicolai
Olaf Nicolai, born in Halle/Saale in 1962, is one of Germany's leading artists. He works conceptually and breaks new ground in detaching art from the classical forms of representation and marketing. He links art with reflections on markets and materialism, with memories and archival material, and with settings from everyday life. He creates artificial landscapes and urban sceneries, enlarges consumer goods into the gigantic and works with alienated advertising graphics. Repetition is a constant motif in his work; his interest is in the repetitive nature of images from our memory and subconscious. Nicolai often incorporates scientific findings into his concepts. His fascination with mathematical models, universal algorithms, symbolism, and regular patterns is evident in many of his installations.
For Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg, Olaf Nicolai created Cula in 2014, his first work in porcelain. The limited edition comprises a tea service with a tray, teapot and tea bowl in black biscuit porcelain. The pieces are distinguished by their finely textured surfaces, reminiscent of the organic forms and growth patterns of coral. To design the teapot, Nicolai used medical software capable of simulating complex, asymmetrical growth processes. The resulting form combines the precision of digital design with the distinctive materiality of matt black porcelain, transforming the familiar elements of a traditional tea service into a sculptural, contemporary form.
