HOLA is thrilled to welcome Olga Koumoundouros as our Public Artist in Residence for the Summer of 2016!  Olga is a New York-born, LA-based artist whose sculptural and community-based work tackles issues of the economic conditions of everyday life, particularly the conditions and commodification of the housing market. Olga earned her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally, including shows in Adamski Gallery for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Germany; REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA; and the Mullin Gallery at Occidental College, Eagle Rock, CA. She also has her work in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, NY. One of her recent works, Notorious Possession turned a soon-to-be-foreclosed home into a work of art, a site of activism, and a space for conversation.

The high school students were led in a discussion about Exchange/Value. For their project we focused on building stools from 1x3 and 2x3 dimensional lumber. These stools were to be designed, built, and decorated for the HOLA woodworking box and stool sale held at the end of the residency. The idea is that we were to build functional objects and think about our basic needs, the labor and services that workers provide to create these basic objects and how they get remunerated for their work. The money from sales at the final shop was to come back to the students individually in exchange for their labor in making the stools.

For one night only, the student work created during Olga Koumoundouros’ Artist-in-Residence project, Exchange and Value, was on display in the student-run pop-up shop created at HOLA Royale.  

Read more about Olga's Residency: https://holapublicartproject.tumblr.com/page/5