Katrine Helmersson

Katrine Helmersson was educated at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm between 1984 and 1990. Helmersson lived and worked in Stockholm, even though her work often took her to exotic countries in Africa and Asia. During her studies at the Royal Institute of Art, she spent several months as an exchange student at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Vadodara (Baroda), Gujarat, India: “I [lived] during my stay in India under great mental and physical strain, which drove me to an extreme state. I believe that I was perhaps born as an artist there” (Helmersson quoted by Annika Öhrner in Amulets Against the Evil Eye, exhibition catalogue, Carl Eldh’s Studio Museum, 2014).

Helmersson was known for her formally accomplished, tactile and corporal sculptures, informed and enriched by both contemporary and classical sculpture, as well as West African visual culture. Galleri Björkholmen in Stockholm (who represented Helmersson) writes on their web page:

Katrine Helmersson’s artistry is characterised by the interaction between the element, material and movement in organic shapes, often with references to Mediterranean ancient cultures and African influences, with their myths and symbols for fertility, magic, sensualism and symbolism. Her artwork interprets impressions from the aestethic of cultural heritage. Not the least from her many visits in Mali, West Africa, where she has been inspired extensively in her work. Helmersson works in different materials and techniques always in a poetic relationship with nature and traditions. The union between the holy and the profane is a central motif in Katrine Helmersson’s art.

In 2005 Helmersson executed the piece Wallflowers for the Linköping University Hospital in Linköping, Sweden. The bronze sculpture, commissioned by Statens konstråd (Public Art Agency Sweden), would become one of Helmersson’s most comprehensive public works. Other commissioned public works include KTH Rocks (project for student accommodation at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology Campus, Stockholm) and a project for the Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, both in 2017.

She has been exhibited at leading galleries and institutions nationally as well as internationally. Solo exhibitions, in Sweden, include Dark Currents (Uppsala Konstmuseum, 2005); Amulets Against the Evil Eye (Carl Eldh’s Studio Museum, Stockholm, 2014) and Jardin Secret (Björkholmen Gallery, Stockholm, 2019). In 2012 Helmersson participated in two international biennials: with the solo exhibition Sombres Courants in the Dak’Art OFF, Dakar, Senegal and with a work in the International Sculpture Biennial of Borås, Sweden. 2014 and 2015 saw two major mid-career retrospectives organized by Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, Stockholm (Pochoir, 15 November 2014 – 1 February 2015) and Norrköping Art Museum, Norrköping, Sweden (21 February – 17 May 2015, together with Malian artist Abdoulaye Konaté, born 1953). Celestial Bodies, at Björkholmen Gallery in Stockholm, 15 October – 13 November 2022, was to prove Helmersson’s last exhibition.

Helmersson is represented in Swedish collections such as Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Norrköping Art Museum; Malmö Konstmuseum; Gothenburg Art Museum; Uppsala Konstmuseum; Västerås Konstmuseum; Borås Konstmuseum; Statens Konstråd (Public Art Agency) and Skissernas Museum (Museum of Artistic Process and Public Art), Lund.

Katrine Helmersson passed away in 2024.

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