“My paintings are neither abstract nor figurative, neither gestural nor compositional. Layers of artistic languages overlap and deny each other. In the same spirit, my wish for communication (or anti-communication) is trapped within the relevance of the artwork.”
Helling’s paintings are conceived by building, erasing and re-working the surfacein an entangled dance back and forth between artist and painting. Over time, the composition is forged through this process which is both additive and subtractive, considering destructiveness and productivity as equal variables.
Of late, alphabetic letters have played a more important role in Helling’s work. By allowing a letter to compositionally dominate the surface of a painting, Helling empowers the visual form of language while simultaneously undermining the language itself. As one moves closer to the painting the symbolic quality of the letter is obliterated and the abstract nature of what is essentially a line against a ‘ground’ is exposed. A harmony occurs, and a conflict is established between the semiotic meaning and the abstract quality of the form.
Born in London in 1975, Oslo-based Sebastian Helling received his BA from the London College of Printing in 2001 and went on to receive an MFA from the Royal College of Art two years later. In 2011 he received an MA from the Statens Kunstakademi in Oslo. Recent solo exhibitions include Us/ Them, QB Gallery and Blomqvist, Oslo, Norway (2018), Volta Art Fair, New York(2017) Somnambulist, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery (2016), I Run This [Full Stop], Island, Oslo (2016), Dive, QB Gallery, Oslo (2015), Gi Labb!, Galleri Lab, Oslo (2014), Grande Days, Trafo Kunsthall, Asker (2013) and When I Was Young, NoPlace, Oslo (2012). He has exhibited in group shows as far and wide as Norway, Sweden, Poland, the UK and USA, including Grafforists, Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles, 2016, Too Much of a Good Thing, Nordic Contemporary, Paris (2015), Tilfældet Oslo i Ringsted, Ringsted Galleriet, Copenhagen (2015), Verve, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2015), Shattered Preface, OSL Contemporary, Oslo (2014), Fluxus autonomus, Hvitstensalong, Hvitsten (2014), and The City is Empty, Kronika, Poland (2013).
Exhibition Opening: Friday August 3rd, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
