Untitled 1988

This little untitled wood sculpture by Mihai Olos is a testament to the power of simple materials to create something complex. Imagine Olos in his studio, surrounded by wood scraps, perhaps humming to himself, arranging and rearranging these little blocks. They’re stacked to make a geometric totem or symbolic tree. It looks like a cross between a modernist sculpture and a child's toy. It seems so playful, like something you might find in a forgotten corner of a woodworker’s shop. The open spaces that Olos creates in this sculpture are as important as the blocks themselves. This piece reminds me of the work of artists like Sol LeWitt, who used simple geometric forms to create complex structures. There’s a conversation happening across time and space, a dialogue between artists who are all trying to figure out the same things: how to make something out of nothing, how to bring order to chaos, and how to make sense of the world through art.