• Emma Helle

    I Dream of Spring
  • I Dream of Spring
  • My Dream of Sonia Delaunay
  • Pasolinin kentauri / Pasolini's Centaur

Biography

Born in Stockholm, 1979 | Lives and works in Helsinki

Emma Helle is a Finnish sculptor who casts the spotlight on the marginalized creatures, usually relegated to secondary status in art history. She portrays cherubs and feminine sprites in the starring role, as active agents. Relaxed, unpretentious, and generous in her style of portrayal, she lends soft, curvaceous shapes to the feminine bodies with a breadth and richness of expression that evokes canonical works from art history. Throughout the ages, there have always been specific conventions that have dictated the portrayal of the human body, a legacy that Helle addresses through a dual lens of art history and corporeality.

Emma Helle is a graduate of the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts. Her work is represented in many private and public collections, including the State Art Collection, the Helsinki Art Museum HAM, and the Pro Artibus collection. She has had several solo exhibitions, including the Turku Art Museum, and she has taken part in group exhibitions at the Mänttä Art Festival, Kunsthalle Helsinki, and the Espoo Museum of Modern Art EMMA, Finland.

The embellished characters are each unique and expressive, and exuding an air of opulence, mischievousness and confidence. Freed from their previous secondary status, they are seemingly reveling in the spotlight. The chosen medium itself which the artist has consistently worked with for years, also bears a certain significance.

Emma Helle, 2010s ©Photo, Atelier Helle

Exhibitions

Museum and single exhibitions (selection)

2024

Carnival of Clay, Art and Museum Centre Sinkka, Kerava, Finland

Emma Helle: Parallel Paradise, Turku Art Museum, Turku, Finland

The Girl Who Turned into a Rosebush, Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland

2023

Garden of the Future, Lahti Art Museum, Lathi, Finland

Fortunate Coincidences. Lars Göran Johnsson Collection, Turku Art Museum, Turku, Finland

The Garden, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden

2022

At the Second GlanceGroup Exhibition, Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie, Bielefeld, Germany

2021

Women and loveGroup Exhibition, Pro Artibus Foundation - Gallery Elverket, Ekenäs, Finland

2020

Underneath, Nordic House, Reykjavik, Iceland

Still Still Life, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland

2019

Out of Office, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland

Emma Helle - Early Wild Fruit Cake, Coexistence – Human, Animal and Nature in Kiasma’s Collections,, Kiasma - Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland

2017

Gallery ARTag, Helsinki, Turku Art Museum, studio

2010

UNTITLED. Art Fair, Miami (curated by Aura Seikkula)

2014

Gallery Forum Box, Helsinki (with Paavo Halonen)

2012

Gallery Sculptor, Helsinki

2011

Gallery Sinne, Helsinki