Olaf Kuhnemann (b.1972) - Oil on Canvas, 2001.

Signed and dated on the reverse.

135x95

Olaf Kuhnemann (b.1972) - Oil on Canvas, 2001.

Signed and dated on the reverse.

135x95cm.

135x95 cm.Olaf Kuhnemann was born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1972 to German parents Markus and Christiane. Until the age of four, he was raised in Arlesheim, Basel, in a family that was greatly affected by Anthroposophy – on which the belief and occupation of both of his parents were based. Following the divorce of his parents and the second marriage of his mother to the Israeli professor Shimon Levi, the family moved to Montreal, Canada, in 1977, and to Herzliya, Israel, in 1980.

In Herzliya, Israel, Olaf met his first art teacher, the sculptor Zvi Lachman. During his childhood and early adulthood he studied painting with Lachman, and over the years became an apprentice in his studio. During 1987-1988 Kuhnemann studied for a year at the Anthroposophical high school Michael Hall in East Sussex England, after which he returned to Israel. At the age of 18, he moved to New York. Upon his arrival he first studied privately with the painter David Paulson, after which he continued to the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture (1990-1992), under the guidance of Rosemarie Beck, Ruth Miller and Bruce Gagnier, among others. Upon graduating from New York Studio School, Kuhnemann started his masters degree at the Parsons School of Design (1992-1994), where he completed his MFA under the guidance of Glen Goldberg, Bruce Gagnier and Esteban Vicente, among others.

In 1994 he returned to Israel and joined the Givon Art Gallery as a gallery assistant. The eight years he spent working alongside established Israeli artists like Moshe Gershuni, Micha Ullman, Yair Garbuz, Uri Katzenstein, Raffi Lavie and others, were important and meaningful to his integration into Israeli art, and have been extremely influential for his future artistic path.

Kuhnemann is married to Tal Alon, founder and Editor of Spitz Magazine, the first Hebrew magazine in Berlin and Germany since the holocaust, and is a father of two sons.