Olek
“The excitement around Olek’s work is undeniable.”
— Sandra Botnen, curator
“I don’t care if we get to Mars, I care about where we can go in our minds.”
Day 11 brings a big finale to the past five days featuring women in textiles and fine art. Today’s artist is a twin spirit that goes by the name, Olek. They came from Poland, landed in New York City and claimed their freedom. I asked Olek whether crochet helped free them, or whether their life would have combusted in freedom regardless. They describe freedom as a state of being, “whoever you are, is what you will bring to your work,” they say. Olek is also a teacher of spiritual principals. I feel something “off” about my question, and I know what it is. I have projected freedom onto them because of the way their knitting looks. To me, their work is an explosion of brightly colored yarn, spontaneous and divinely patterned. Their crochet creates art statements rather than functional garments, and Olek’s perspective firmly rooted in their functioning as a spiritual being having a human experience.
Olek does not deny they are free, but when I ask if they aspire to greater levels of freedom and creative success, they are afraid to answer the question. “I know the universe will give me whatever I ask for. So, we have to be careful what we ask for,” they say. They proceeds to tell me a charming story about recently wanting a sparrow feather to add to their feather collection. Soon after, a hawk swooped down, attacked a sparrow so that sparrow feathers fell from the sky landing in their possession. Olek explained how the universe is ready to both kill, and sacrifice to give you what you ask for. I recalled seeing the question “Are You and Sparrow or a Hawk?” written across their website. At the time, I wanted to know what they meant by the question. “We are all both,” they said. My wish was fulfilled just as Olek described - I didn’t even ask the question - but the answer was given.
Speaking to Olek from their Brooklyn apartment, they wear a lofty knit grey sweater and sit in front of a large-scale collage featuring brightly crocheted doilies on a black backdrop. “I am very old fashioned” they say, perhaps referencing the doilies. But old and young, fast and slow are meaningless binaries, signaling our conversation is probably going down a fruitless path. By old fashioned I suspect Olek means she embraced a slow way of doing things. Bu the subject changes when Olek tells me they grows their own vegetables. “Does a vegetable grow fast or slow? No, it just grows how it needs to grow. You can force it to grow faster with chemicals but then who would want to eat it?”
At the same time, I can’t help but comment on how fast she her art career took off. “It’s true,” they say, “the more we slow down the faster we actually grow.” Olek is an artist, a prolific crocheter, energy worker and influencer. Her entire apartment has been replicated in crochet at The Smithsonian Museum. More recent projects introduce Virtual Reality, giving viewers a journey inside a network of stitches to experience the shape and energy of Olek’s works from the inside out. “For me crotchet and Virtual Reality make for the perfect artistic marriage. The Young will be familiar with the VR while discovering crochet, and the elderly with be familiar with the crochet while discovering VR.”
You can see some of Olek’s VR videos on their website at
Olek has taken yarn bombing to such a level it is hardly about the feminist messaging that instigating the movement. Our conversation circles back to freedom. On a few occasion they mentions their time in prison. I did not want to ask how they found themselves there because it was obvious it was a spiritual growth opportunity, and presumable something she inadvertently asked for. It turned out prison was a place to sit with women, hear their stories, and feel the power of what was possible when women supported and held space for one another.
“There is talk of going to the Mars,” says Olek. “I don’t care if we get to Mars, I care about where we can go in our minds.” With 60,000 Instagram followers they are now working with FansOnly to create a space for spiritual teaching, discussion and artistic interaction which I am more than curious to join.
The energy and excitement surrounding Olek’s work is undeniable. I would be thrilled to own the elaborately crocheted bicycle currently for sale on Artsy through the Robert Fontaine Gallery for $6,000 USD. No doubt a conversation piece, it already has a certain degree of Hollywood and internet fame. “It would be a great buy,” Olek says, speaking from a collectors point of view, “but it would not directly support me as an artist,”they say.
This statement introduces a whole new issue to buying art. Personally I am motivated by “purpose driven collecting” - my main purposes being supporting artist. This means focussing on art by living artist as well as purchasing work on the primary market. In the following days I will look at primary versus secondary markets and the impact these two different markets have on the artists themselves.
Available Works
Coming soon…