Originally from Chicago, Illinois, multi-disciplinary contemporary artist Evelyna Helmer lives and works in Australia, but frequently works out of studios in both Florida and Chicago. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Art History from the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana, as well as post-graduate certificates in Photography, Fine Art and Horticulture. Her strong academic background in art and art history profoundly influences her work, and includes a respect for archival techniques and materials. In her own words, “Its only when you really understand a material that you can exploit all its qualities. Currently, with imposed isolation, I find I have a freedom to be more playful, combining mediums in
experimentation.”

Helmer works with a variety of high quality materials, including fine oil paints and Belgian linen canvases. Through the process of collecting, assembling, sculpting and and painting, Helmer’s broad range of works contain a surreal visual language in which symbols, icons and familiarity are redirected into a tense strangeness. Her work bears recognizable figurative elements draw, which are intended to draw the viewer into the work and bridging a sense of connectivity. Heightened colors, skewed perspective and exaggerated scale accompany sharp, poetic elements, through which she attempts to disrupt and reinterpret the meanings of the objects represented. Fusing narrative modes including poetry, literature, film, music and collage, Helmer attempts to recalibrate reality into unsettling destinations, allowing the familiar and the arcane to converge.