Mihai Olos

Mihai Olos (1940-2015) was one of the most prominent Romanian artists of the 1970s. Being interested in various media - painting, sculpture, happenings, Land Art, and even literature - he developed a coherent conceptual system of modular morphologic structures (knots), ultimately leading him to his utopian project, the “universal city” of Olospolis.

This monograph is published as a follow-up to the exhibition The Ephemerist. A Mihai Olos Retrospective, organised by the National Museum of Contemporary Art - MNAC Bucharest in 2016. The publication compiles a representative selection of artworks, photographs from the artist’s archive, which are being published for the first time, and essays on the oeuvre and life of Mihai Olos.

Mihai Olos (1940-2015), born in Arinis, Maramures, Romania, lived and worked in Romania and Germany. Selected exhibitions include: Folklore, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, MuCEM Museum, Marseille (2020-2021); Perspectives, BOZAR Centre for Contemporary Art, Brussels (2019); SEEING HISTORY – 1947-2007. THE MNAC COLLECTION, National Museum of Contemporary Art - MNAC, Bucharest (2019); Mihai Olos, Centre Pompidou – Atelier Brancusi, Paris (2018); The Ephemerist. A Mihai Olos Retrospective, National Museum of Contemporary Art - MNAC, Bucharest (2016); Olospolis, Plan B, Berlin (2016); Appearance and Essence, ArtEncounters 1st edition, Timisoara (2015); National Museum Brukenthal Sibiu, Romania (2010); Museum of Art, Baia Mare, Romania (2009); International Triennial of Small Sculpture, Murska Sobota, Slovenia (2001); City Art Gallery, Baia Mare, Romania (2000); Künstlerhaus Schloß Wiepersdorf, Germany (1993); Golden Tripod, Schaubühne, Berlin (1993); The 39th Venice Biennale, ‘Space Capital 1970-1977’ by Joseph Beuys (1980); Documenta 6, Kassel, in the framework of the Free International University of Joseph Beuys (1977); Mihai Olos, Maramures Museum, Sighet, Romania (1976); Art and the City, New Gallery, Bucharest (1974); Milan Triennial (1968).