Thomas Helbig GER, b. 1967
Overview
"My works are about reduction to an unrecognizable state from which something new can then evolve. Concealing, in order to reveal something, encrypting in order to make something visible."
Thomas Helbig (born 1967 in Rosenheim, Germany) is an artist based in Berlin. Helbig attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Munich and Goldsmiths, University of London, from 1989-1996.
The practice of Thomas Helbig contains painting, drawing and sculpture, while each of the media plays on its own field. The focus of the paintings is colour itself – in its intrinsic value, its materiality and the ability to create spatial illusions from countless shades of light and dark. In contrast, his collage sculptures demonstrate a different kind of transformation of the source materials he uses. His repertoire is based on a fundus of discarded, thrown-out things, as well as kitschy plastic sculptures. Helbig mixes and connects these disparate elements into new forms, which are displayed as coded messages from an enigmatic present.
Helbig’s paintings, abstracted and gestural, give a hint or an impression of something familiar, yet they remain enigmatic and abstruse. With a dramatic palette, Helbig alludes to the unwieldy force of nature and recalls some of Caspar David Friedrich’s more ominous paintings that anticipate a sense of foreboding and perhaps something greater than we, as humans, are. Artists like Friedrich and Rothko have been influential to Helbig as he looks to explore spirituality through his work and address that which is beyond our control.
“We do not know what powers and violent forces determine us. However, in the work of Thomas Helbig the psychic energies that govern us find their form, their precise and their authentic expression,” – Berthold Reiss. For his sculptures, Helbig’s studio is a laboratory of invention where discarded ephemera of daily life is broken and reassembled to create totems of fictional power. Searching flea markets and the like, the artist finds figurines and discarded lawn ornaments such as Greek nudes, gnomes, animals and other intriguing objects that are often fragmented, contorted and reassembled into biomorphic abstractions.
Helbig has shown his work in many exhibitions including at Oldenburger Kunstverein, at the ICA in London and at Maschenmode in Berlin. He has also shown at galleries and museums such as Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach, Danel Hug Gallery in Los Angeles and The Approach in London.
Works
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Thomas HelbigSaturn, 2016Spraypaint on velvet100.5 x 90.5 cm
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Thomas HelbigRed Velvet, 2016Spraypaint on velvet90.5 x 80 cm
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Thomas HelbigLord, 2011Varnish and oil on canvas180 x 160 cm
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Thomas HelbigCaligola, 2011Varnish and oil on canvas170 x 150 cm
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Thomas HelbigCocos Micania, 2011Lacquer and oil on canvas90 x 80 cm
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Thomas HelbigUntitled, 2011Acrylic lacquer and oil on canvas50 x 40 cm
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Thomas HelbigQuiet days in Salò, 2011Mixed media on paper20.5 x 15.5 cm
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Thomas HelbigQuiet days in Salò, 2011Mixed media on paper20.5 x 15.5 cm
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Thomas HelbigMonsignore, 2011Varnish and oil on canvas170 x 140
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Thomas HelbigBlume, 2011Mixed media145 x 48 x 48 cm
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Thomas HelbigUntitled, 2011Acrylic lacquer and oil on canvas60 x 50 cm
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Thomas HelbigComunicato Stampa, 2011Mixed media160 x 50 x 50 cm
Exhibitions
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To Bid Or Not To Bid - Contemporary Curated
16 Dec 2017 - 10 Feb 2018If we left the world in the hands of journalists, psychoanalysts and psychologists, man-made wonders would disappear: paintings, statues, lamps, chairs, bus tickets, books, manuscripts. They would all disappear, swallowed...Read more -
Thomas Helbig - In A Present
5 Mar - 6 May 2016In Thomas Helbig’s recent works, immaterial traces of jewellery, decorative chains, rosaries and cosmic motifs light up against the dark background of the medium, much like in photograms. Helbig uses...Read more -
Der Beste Anfang - Group show
3 Oct - 14 Nov 2015The Avant-garde is always an instance of novelty, that changes form, transforms the language and present itself as – Der Beste Anfang – The best beginning, taking the irrational responsibility...Read more -
Sphères 7 - Group show
19 Oct 2014 - 6 Jun 2015Thomas Brambilla Gallery is announcing its participation in the seventh edition of Sphères, an exhibition project organized by the Galleria Continua which will bring together several galleries from all over...Read more -
Too Big Or Not Too Big - Group show
18 May - 30 Jun 2013Thomas Brambilla Gallery is proud to announce on Saturday 18th May 2013 the opening of the group show Too big or not too big with William Anastasi, Dario Beatovic, Dove...Read more -
Thomas Helbig - Quite Days in Salò
23 Sep - 21 Nov 2011The show is inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini movie “Salò” and it is composed by a series of new paintings and sculptures. Helbig’s work is a combination of contradictions and...Read more -
Patching - Group show
9 Oct - 7 Dec 2010The unifying concept of PATCHING is collage. However, only one artist in the show— Kirstine Roepstorff—actually displays collages, in the traditional sense. The other artists have created works that suggest...Read more
News
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Thomas Helbig group show "Intelligence II"
ARGENT | Richard Sorge Strasse 64, 10249, Berlin, Germany July 2, 2024INTELLIGENCE - part II Andrew Gilbert Thomas Helbig Erwin Kneihsl zeitblom curated and edited by Cora Waschke MORE INFO HERE ! CATALOGUE PREVIEWRead more -
Thomas Helbig group show "Intelligence I"
Giesebrechtstrasse 6, Berlin Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany September 1, 2023In Charlottenburg‘s Giesebrechtstraße, not far from the apartment where the exhibition Intelligence will take place in September 2023, there was once the noble brothel Salon...Read more -
Thomas Helbig group show "The world: reglitterized" Biennale
Künstlerverbund im Haus Der Kunst, Munich, Germany June 30, 2021Times of radical changes or exceptional events have often shown, in hindsight, to be highly culturally productive. The exhibition THE WORLD:REGLITTERIZED is an immediate reaction...Read more -
Thomas Helbig "Les Saints et les corps"
Treignac Project, Treignac, France July 25, 2020Thomas Helbig presents a new set of works on paper installed in the former hospice at Treignac Projet. The exhibition was developed by Thomas in...Read more -
Thomas Helbig - group show "Hymne an die Jungen"
Märkisches Museum Witten, Germany June 14, 2019MORE INFO HERE !Read more -
Thomas Helbig "Use your relatives. Home."
Kunstverein Rosenheim, Germany September 22, 2018 Read more -
Thomas Helbig - group show "Metamorphosis"
KAI 10 | Arthena Foundation in Düsseldorf, Germany March 3, 2017Opening on March 4th to May 27th, 2017Read more -
Thomas Helbig "Zwischen Hund Und Wolf"
Tschechisches Zentrum Berlin, Germany February 23, 2017Opening on February 24th to April 6th 2017Read more -
Thomas Helbig
Morgenrothe, Galerie Guido W. Baudach - Berlin January 17, 2015 Read more -
Sphères 2014
Galleria Continua, France October 19, 2014MORE INFO HERE !Read more -
Thomas Helbig - group show "Feels like heaven"
Sommer Contemporary Art Tel Aviv September 18, 2014Sommer Contemporary Art - Feels Like HeavenRead more -
Thomas Helbig "La figurazione inevitabile"
Centro Pecci, Prato, Italy March 23, 2013 Read more -
Thomas Helbig, Victor Man and Helmut Stallaerts
Museum Dhondt - Dhaenens January 27, 2013 -
Thomas Helbig - group show
Alpenrepublik, Kunstraum Innsbruck June 2, 2012 Read more -
Thomas Helbig "Collaboration and Interventions"
Kunsthalle Andratx, Andratx, Spain April 7, 2012 Read more