Nicolai's conceptual approach and continuous use of diverse media and materials both question the way in which we view our everyday environment. He is constantly translating scientific theories into art, into aesthetic-artistic idioms, rendering them accessible through new contexts; he refers to American sociologist, Jeremy Rifkin, who wrote: Considered one of Germany’s leading artists, Olaf Nicolai takes on a range of conceptual themes, from political and cultural critiques to inquiries into human perception. A recurring subject is the aesthetic appropriation of nature by human culture and design, explored through mixed-media sculptures and images, as in his juxtaposition of plant forms with depictions of hand gestures in Italian Renaissance paintings. “Questions of form, moods, attitudes, and style are not just vain play with surfaces,” Nicolai has said. “They are questions of organizational forms of activities.” , Gelsenkirchen 2010 , 2014 In several of his works the artist confronts "socialist ideals" with its direct adversary, the "capitalistic market economy" and thus formulates the ambivalence and contradiction between aspects of utopia, pragmatism, consumerism and aesthetics. In his artwork Lenin: 8 qm the animadversion toward a redistribution of income and wealth stands in net contrast to the sequins of a brilliant and luxurious form of capitalism. Die Flamme der Revolution, liegend is one of the very concrete examples of political constructivsm. Since 2009 the Kunstmuseum Thurgau exhibits the artist's project Welcome to the Tears of St. Lawrence at the Kartause Ittingen. The work, originally created for the 51. Biennale di Venezia in 2005, belongs to the Collection Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary and contains the request of the artist to watch the skies and to search for silence. At its current venue this work of art is perfectly located as the Order of Saint Bruno requests silence and contemplation as prerequisite to a spiritual life. In 2010, the Hannover Kestnergesellschaft invited the artist to exhibit his works. Nicolai chose the French title Faites le travail qu'accomplit le soleil ; his show and its title referred to both the institution and to El Lissitzky whose works were shown at the same place in 1923. The main sculpture of the exhibit was a tower of glass and mirrors accessible by the public, right unter the glass cupola of the Kestnergesellschaft. In a series of art performances called Escalier du Chant , Nicolai took over the sweeping staircase of Munich’s modern art museum, Pinakothek der Moderne, for one Sunday of each month in 2011. Throughout the day, performers would sing the songs of twelve contemporary composers which addressed political issues that took place throughout that year, creating a new aesthetic context for the year’s political events. In 2012, at Städel in Frankfurt am Main, he presented his sculpture Shutter's Lullaby, two concentric cages in form of an ellipsis. On October 24, 2014 Austria's president Heinz Fischer officially spoke at the opening of Nicolai's Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice at Viennas Ballhausplatz. Two years earlier, the artist had won the first prize at the Memorial Competition implemented by the City Council of Vienna. Nicolai's monument consists of a concrete sculpture in three steps and in the form of a X. The inscription on top of the monument consists of a concrete poem by Scottish point Ian Hamilton Finlay with just two words: all and alone.
Literature, catalogues
Petra Gördüren, Dirk Luckow : Dopplereffekt. Bilder in Kunst und Wissenschaft, Kunsthalle Kiel, Januar 31 to May 2, 2010. Kiel: DuMont 2010,
Olaf Nicolai: „Show Case“; Institut für moderne Kunst Nürnberg,
Olaf Nicolai: „The Blondes“; Artimo, Amsterdam, 2005
Olaf Nicolai: „Rewind – Forward“; Hatje Cantz 2003.
Olaf Nicolai: „Enjoy / Survive“; die gestalten verlag, 2001
Olaf Nicolai: „30 Farben“; Salon Verlag 2000
Olaf Nicolai: „Stilleben“; Berlin 1999 / 2000
Olaf Nicolai: „bubblegram - a street surfing“; Kunsthaus Bregenz 1999
Wolfgang Träger u.a.: Plateau der Menschheit. 49. Biennale von Venedig. In: kunstforum international, Vol. 156, 2001; 135
