Mara Olschowka
Mentee: Raphael Sbrzesny
Mara Olschowka lives and works in Cologne. She studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe, where she was a Meisterschülerin of Tatjana Doll in 2023/24. She also studied at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm and at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi.
Olschowka primarily works in painting. From this starting point, she investigates phenomena and forces acting upon the body, consciously exposing herself to them. Her paintings often originate from photographic or media-derived images that are collectively familiar. She is interested in how these representations shift through the process of painting and become acts of reproduction. One might say that her work is permeated by a constant yet remarkably delicate sense of the uncanny.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. In 2026, she edited the anthology Collapse and will undertake an international residency in Seoul supported by the State of Baden-Württemberg.
www.maraolschowka.de