Elizabeth Xi Bauer - News

Karoliina Hellberg: Labyrinth, 7th June – 3rd August 2024

Sinead Maharaj — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 13:50:59 GMT

Elizabeth Xi Bauer is delighted to present Karoliina Hellberg’s first UK solo exhibition. The Gallery will exhibit new works by the artist and a wallpaper print designed and executed by Hellberg for this upcoming solo show.

Karoliina Hellberg lives and works in Helsinki and is known for her large, vibrant oil, acrylic, and ink canvases. Her work immerses the viewer in a world of repeated imagery, signs, and symbols, a labyrinth of spaces and places, combining layers, forms, and elements. The artist blends dream-like visions and narratives that merge the every day with the ethereal. This is explored with pictorial tropes such as indoor scenes, plants, flowers, clouds, animals, and textiles, which are remembered, imagined, or inspired by researched source material.

“Spaces and moods in my paintings have been influenced by the environment in which I grew up and the kind of places I feel to be important…spaces in [my] paintings are collages of metaphysical and psychological elements; they do not just reflect just one place or experience’’, Hellberg explains.

Hellberg paints the space between memories and fantasies, heightened by her recurring use of intense colour throughout her works. Confident yet sensual brush strokes merge the foreground and background, highlighting areas rich in detail while allowing the works to appear flat and challenge our understanding of how we navigate the physical world. Employing these techniques, Hellberg builds a captivating and enchanting world.

The settings depicted in Hellberg’s paintings are often interiors, such as rooms in a home, which act as a container for the elements within them. The works in this upcoming exhibition at Elizabeth Xi Bauer will include spaces between the interior and exterior—for example, the view of a house as seen from a garden looking in. Although an outdoor space, these gardens have still been designed and created by a person. Rather than linear, they operate across multiple levels of time as they are a mixture of real, remembered, and imaginary places. Hellberg’s works depict fictional spaces that interpret instances or objects that originate in reality. The artist omits human figures from her works and instead portrays objects and elements brought in or discarded by humankind. In Hellberg’s works, the ghosts of human presence remain. “I enjoy the recurring theme of aesthetic ghosts and labyrinths; my paintings are like chapters in a book of short stories”, explains Hellberg.

Rather than guiding the viewer, Hellberg wants the audience to have their own understanding when encountering the work and to enjoy losing themselves within it. Whilst the references may be personal or from her research, Hellberg does not always desire to disclose her inspiration by not inflicting her interpretations on the viewer.

Hellberg works on one painting at a time, turning other artworks around so she does not see them. The artist does not always finish a painting before deciding to work on another. This allows time to reflect and continue working on another canvas, returning to the other paintings later. This intense focus is reflected in her works.

“It’s more like one thing leads to another; you can’t predict all the choices you’ll make in a painting, how you will feel about it or what you might need to solve in the painting”, Hellberg explains.

This upcoming exhibition of new works by Karoliina Hellberg at Elizabeth Xi Bauer will include large canvases, smaller paintings, framed watercolours, and prints in a wallpaper format, the latter of which the artist has received a grant to create from Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike). These wallpaper prints will serve as an accent feature, exploring the motifs embedded within Hellberg’s works. The familiarity of wallpaper further layers and extends Hellberg’s depiction of domestic settings. This new wallpaper is similar to a project by Hellberg, commissioned by the Didrichsen Museum, upon her receiving the Pro Arte prize in 2018. This 2019 solo exhibition at the Didrichsen Museum was the first time Hellberg created and executed her wallpaper prints. The artist included new wallpaper prints in exhibitions at Galerie Anhava, Helsinki, Finland, and Galleri KANT, Copenhagen, Denmark.

The exhibition will be curated by Maria do Carmo M. P. de Pontes.

Karoliina Hellberg (born in 1987 in Porvoo, Finland) lives and works in Helsinki, Finland.

In 2015, Karoliina Hellberg graduated with an MA from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, where she also received her BA in 2012. Hellberg studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, UK, in 2013.

Hellberg has participated in residencies at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France; The Academy of Fine Arts Foundation, Helsinki; Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP), Suomenlinna, Helsinki; Academy of Fine Arts residency, Berlin, Germany; and Ásmundarsalur, Reykjavík, Iceland.

Solo exhibitions of Hellberg’s work include those at HAM Helsinki Art Museum Gallery (2015), Helsinki; Guggenheim Art Club at Kaiku (2014), Helsinki; Didrichsen Art Museum (2019), Helsinki; Galerie Anhava (2017 and 2019), Helsinki; Galleri KANT (2019 and 2022), Copenhagen, Denmark; Ásmundarsalur (2020), Reykjavík; and Finnish Institute (2017), St Petersburg, Russia. Hellberg’s work has also been included in group exhibitions, including those at Ásmundarsalur (2023), Reykjavik; Amos Rex (2021), Helsinki; Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum (2020), Helsinki; Kuopio Art Museum (2018), Kuopio, Finland; and Peckham Rye Studios (2014), London, where she was invited to participate by the Slade School of Fine Art. Hellberg’s work has been exhibited at art fairs internationally, including Market Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden; CHART Art Fair, Copenhagen; Enter Art Fair, Copenhagen; and Art Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery previously presented Karoliina Hellberg's work in the group exhibition The Cholmondeley Ladies in 2022. That same year, Hellberg was commissioned by the City of Helsinki’s Art Collection to create a public art display. Kallio General Upper Secondary School now houses a series of four paintings by Karoliina Hellberg, an alumnus of the school. The series of paintings is titled Lilacs, Anemones and Wind, and it is divided into two pairs of paintings located in the stairway of the building.

In 2018, Hellberg was awarded the prestigious Pro Arte award from the Didrichsen Art Museum. Alongside receiving the award and in collaboration with the Didrichsen Art Museum, the artist published Karoliina Hellberg, a collection of essays, interviews, and a catalogue of her oeuvre. In 2019, the Didrichsen Art Museum held a solo exhibition of Hellberg’s work as part of receiving the award.

Hellberg’s works are collected in numerous public and private collections worldwide, including Saastamoinen Foundation, Helsinki; Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki; The Academy of Fine Arts Collection, Helsinki; Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; The Finnish Art Society, Helsinki; Didrichsen Art Museum, Helsinki; and the Vexi Salmi Collection at Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Hämeenlinna, Finland.

Hellberg created typography for Finnish rapper and poet Paperi T's 2023 album Joka päivä jotaion katoaa. She also designed the typography for Paperi T’s posters and concert visuals.

Hellberg’s artwork has also graced the cover of Anna Järvinen and Tapio Viitasaari’s 2022 album Dagen var mulen - sånger av Kaj Chydenius.

In 2022, Hellberg was commissioned to produce a painting for Café Savoy in Helsinki.

Hellberg contributed to the 2020 Artek 85th Anniversary poster and created artwork for the cover of Otto Donner's book De levande och alla de döda.

In 2017, the WSOY created a limited-edition series of 12 Finnish literary classics with covers recreated by Finnish contemporary artists to celebrate Finland's 100th anniversary of its independence. Hellberg was commissioned to create the cover artwork of Tove Jansson's Moominpappa at the Sea.

In 2015, Hellberg partnered with design house Samuj to create the set design and visuals for their Spring show.

Hellberg is represented by Galerie Anhava in Helsinki and Galleri KANT in Copenhagen.

Elizabeth Xi Bauer presents a solo exhibition of new works by Karoliina Hellberg, which will run from 7th June – 3rd August 2024, open Wednesday through to Saturday, 12 – 6 pm or by appointment. A Private View will be held on 6th June 2024, 6 – 8 pm, in the artist's presence. The artist will be available for interviews.  

Alexandra Zarins : Caught in the act of being ourselves , 12th April – 25th May 2024

Sinead Maharaj — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 14:30:09 GMT

Cătălin Marius Petrișor Hereșanu: It's all in your vivid imagination, 8th December 2023 – 20th January 2024

Paige Ashley — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 09:16:20 GMT

Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery presents - Antonio Pichillá: In front of the lake 29th September – 11th November 2023

Paige Ashley — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 09:29:18 GMT

Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery, London, is pleased to announce In front of the lake Antonio Pichillá’s first solo exhibition in Europe. This exhibition closely follows Inherited Threads, at Tate Modern, a new collection display of works by North and Latin American artists that were recently acquired by the institution, as well as Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín: Tejiendo El Paisaje, a video installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara.

Elizabeth Xi Bauer Presents: É a lama, é a lama (It’s the mud, it’s the mud) • Maria Thereza Alves • Tapfuma Gutsa • ikkibawiKrrr • Oswaldo Maciá • Uriel Orlow 4th August– 16th September 2023

Paige Ashley — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 16:33:57 GMT

Elizabeth Xi Bauer presents É a lama, é a lama, an exhibition of four contemporary artists and one artist group whose practices acknowledge our climate emergency. In É a lama, é a lama, each of them turn their gaze to one aspect of our planet, depicting elements such as flora, fauna, water, fire, geological formations and typhoons to address global warming.

Elizabeth Xi Bauer Presents Gokula Stoffel & Alexandra Zarins, 16th June – 22nd July 2023

Paige Ashley — Tue, 02 May 2023 14:28:57 GMT

Phantom Dance: Theodore Ereira-Guyer & Thiago Barbalho, 21st April – 3rd June 2023

Paige Ashley — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 12:15:38 GMT

Marine Lover: Wax and Water at Sally’s Fault, Amsterdam

Paige Ashley — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 15:20:58 GMT

Marine Lover: Wax and Water, on now until 15th October 2022, at Sally’s Fault, Amsterdam

In a series of exhibitions curated by Àngels Miralda based on works of literature, Luce Irigaray’s Marine Lover (1981) serves as the base concept. The curator writes:

Literature can also be liquid based on its lunar rhythms and bifurcating paths. For Luce Irigaray, Marine Lover is a challenge to the reign of the sun as wisdom. Instead, she writes from the viewpoint of deep waters that keep their own time as tide and keep secrets hidden in the dark deep.

The natural sciences began as the quest of alchemy divided into four elements – earth, water, fire, and air. It was the pre-Socratic philosopher Thales who proposed that water was the origin of all things – that earth and air sat floating atop a great sea. He arrived at this conclusion by seeing wetness become air, slime, and earth. And indeed, seeds spring from moisture.

Abraham Kritzman and Violeta Paez have collaboratively produced a new body of work that references material transformation as well as imagery of alchemy. Using watercolour and wax, the production of these pieces follows the principle of shifting states of matter and the fluxes and flows of liquid paths. Alchemy produces codes of meaning in everyday things, and following this principle, Kritzman and Paez’s work uses the allegorical path of a sea-froth labyrinth to present an imaginative narrative of archetypal symbols.

„So remember the liquid ground. And taste the saliva in your mouth also – notice her familiar presence during your silence, how she is forgotten when you speak. Or again: how you stop speaking when you drink. And how necessary all of that is for you!” – Luce Irigaray, Marine Lover, 1981

Marine Lover: Snakes and Metal by Abraham Kritzman and Violeta Paez Armando

Paige Ashley — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 15:07:20 GMT

Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery and Bradwolff Projects present Marine Lover: Snakes and Metal. This exhibition follows Marine Lover: Wax and Water (19th August – 15th October 2022) an exhibition of works by Abraham Kritzman and Violeta Paez Armando at Sally’s Fault, Amsterdam.

Marine Lover: Snakes and Metal, curated by Àngels Miralda, at Bradwolff Projects, Amsterdam, features works by Marlene Dumas, Abraham Kritzman, Violeta Paez Armando, Ulay and Müge Yilmaz.

The Immortal 15th July – 14th September 2022 at Elizabeth Xi Bauer • Caroline Achaintre • Lorena Ancona • Tonico Lemos Auad• Dan Coopey • Marta Jakobovits • Antonio Pichillá

Paige Ashley — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 09:24:50 GMT

Elizabeth Xi Bauer would like to take this opportunity to share with you our upcoming exhibition The Immortal.