Olaf’s Keyhole series (2011-2012) is his definitive work on visualising the unspoken. A look through the keyhole reveals a woman who is looking away from the camera. While we do not see the expression on her face, her body language – the slight hunch of her bare back – expresses emotions of loneliness and vulnerability. Within a highly stylised framework, Olaf addresses such emotional and social taboos as shame, indignation and power relationships. Olaf’s works have been exhibited internationally and are held in a number of collections, including Rijksmuseum and Stedlijk Museum, Amsterdam; and George Eastman House, Rochester.

“I think that an artist should always try to reflect his personal feelings in his work…Of course I get more serious and melancholy the older I get; such is life.”

Erwin Olaf