Mercedes Helnwein (born November 12, 1979) is an artist, writer and filmmaker.[1] She was born in Vienna, Austria and primarily lives and works in Los Angeles.[2][3]
Early life
Helnwein was born in Vienna, Austria.[1] Her father is Austro-Irish artist Gottfried Helnwein.[4][5] She and her brothers, Cyril, Ali, and Wolfgang Amadeus, often modeled for their father's work as children,[6] whose works often included nightmarish depictions of war and exploitation.[7] As children, Mercedes and her siblings were given the freedom to express themselves, and she developed a style distinctively hers.[7]
Art
Helnwein has no formal art training,[8] but, growing up, she interacted with art figures such as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring through her father's connections.[1] She creates large-scale drawings, most of which are done with black pencil, colored pencils, or pastels.[8] Helnwein's art debuted in 2000,[7] with one of her first group exhibitions curated in Downtown Los Angeles by actor Jason Lee.[9] In 2007 Helnwein's New York solo exhibition debut, Untitled (Self-Portrait With Ribbon) at Bespoke Gallery.[10] Rachel Wolff, writing for Vulture, suggested Helnwein's "immaculately executed drawings play out like dramatically lit, attractively cast indie flicks."[10]
Helnwein has exhibited over ten solo exhibits and over a dozen group exhibits.[2] In 2005, Damien Hirst acquired Helnwein's collections "East of Eden," "Strange Days," and "Whistling Past the Graveyard" which were then presented at A Gallery in London.[9][11]The Molesworth Gallery hosted its first solo exhibit of Helnwein's work in 2007.[12] The Molesworth Gallery hosted its second solo exhibit of Helnwein's work in 2009, "Whistling past the graveyard."[13] Helnwein's "Temptation to be Good," a series of drawings in oil pastels, was exhibited at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery in 2010,[11] and in 2012, Helnwein's work was again shown at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in her solo show, "Make It Dark."[9] The Molesworth Gallery, in 2014, exhibited Helnwein's "No Way Home,"[14][15] and it also made available her monograph of the same name.[14][16] In 2017, Edward Hopper House held a solo exhibit of Helnwein's oil pastel, "Chaos Theory."[17][18][19]
In 2004, Helnwein's travelogue, "Devil Got Religion," covered the 15-day road trip with Alex Prager and Beth Riesgraf for their "America Motel" installation.[4] In 2008 her debut novel, The Potential Hazards of Hester Day, was published by Simon & Schuster.[21][22]
Discussing her 2021 novel, Slingshot, Helnwein says, "The secrets of suburbia, the surface fakeness, have always been interesting to me."[7][23]
References
^ abc"Mercedes Helnwein". Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. Contemporary Authors. Gale. 2009 – via Gale Literature Resource Center.
