olga westrate strips things of unnecessary layers and brings them back to the essence. using
both personal and social sources, the links between inner experience, personal history and the big
picture are explored. the subconscious, the unconscious drives and the human psyche is a
regularly recurring topic in her work. westrate responds to contemporary society through intuition
and the subconscious mind. imagining the invisible, she shapes this raw area, the power of the elusive and incomprehensible mind. the things that cannot be told or are difficult to tell and therefore hardly come to the surface

boundaries between various media are explored, such as photography, video, animation and
digital image composition, it is a mix of analog and new technology. from the chaos arises a
coherent whole, an organized chaos. the imperfect of the painter and sculptor is integrated in
digital techniques in order to arrive at a new visual language

places unrelated to art play an important role in presenting her work to the outside world. for olga westrate, art is inextricably linked to the environment in which we live and function

Quirky view on nature and photography.
Olga Westrate made photos with the cameras of various mobile phones
in the Oranjezon nature reserve. She was guided by intuition and coincidence. She composed digital collages with the photographs. The black-and-white images balance between order and chaos.

Eigenzinnige kijk op natuur en fotografie.
Olga Westrate maakte met de camera's van diverse mobiele telefoons foto's
in natuurgebied Oranjezon. Zij liet zich leiden door intuitie en toeval. Met de foto's componeerde zij digitale collages. De zwart-wit beelden balanceren tussen orde en chaos.
PZC 2014

Colorful and humoristic are the scenes that Olga Westrate shows in Villa Einstein, a former physics laboratory of the University, where Einstein is said to have taught. The gallery is temporary............ Art in an unoccupied property is now more, and that indicates the viewing cabinets of Westrate the right casual atmosphere.. ...
At Westrate it is not the rush but the timelessness that fascinates. With anschit cards, photographs, ceramics, found objects, she creates three-dimensional collage's, with their black window frames giving insight into a childlike view on reality.

Kleurrijk en humoristich zijn de taferelen die Olga Westrate toont in Villa Einstein, een
voormalig natuurkundig laboratorium van de universiteit, waar naar verluidt Einstein nog
les heeft gegeven. De galerie is van tijdelijke aard............Kunst in een leegstaand pand is het nu meer, en dat geeft aan de kijkkasten van Westrate de juiste ongedwongen sfeer.....
Bij Westrate is het niet de haast maar de tijdloosheid die boeit. Met anschitkaarten, foto's, keramiek, gevonden voorwerpen maakt zij driedimensionale collage's, die met hun zwarte raamkozijnen zicht geven op een kinderlijke werkelijkheid.

Marina de Vries. Het Parool 1995

english

.............some years ago olga was a student of the rietveld academie, to which i was
connected as a teacher. and in that capacity i got to know her as a wayward outlier.
this often brought her into conflict with some teachers.
she chose to go her own way.........

you realize that what is shown here is the tip of an iceberg, the invisible iceberg,
its spiritual growth process, the struggles and doubts are spared….

frank lodeizen, teacher gerrit rietveld academie