Visiting Art/ist 2021: Helena Kauppila | In der Unendlichkeit – Inside Infinity

ART EXHIBITION as part of the Visiting Art/ist programme.

“I think in colour, and I think through the body.“

Humans on the Beach, In the Trees, Dawn in the Park − these are three titles from the works of Helena Kauppila. Humans on the Beach indeed depicts a teeming crowd, In the Trees one could recognize a forest of leaves, and Dawn in the Park runs over colourful steps − but probably in quite a different way than the viewer would expect. Unsurprising, because the artist approaches the use of colour and form both mathematically and scientifically. Helena Kauppila’s paintings, drawings and sculptures are colourful, mostly large-format and exude a boundless energy.

In 2021 Helena Kauppila brings precisely this energy to the Finnish Institute. She is a perfect fit for our Visiting Art/ist programme, which was launched in 2015. For this programme, primarily Finnish artists living in Berlin are chosen whose works leave a strong impression on us. Helena Kauppila has called Berlin home for the past five years. She previously lived and worked for many years in New York. The main idea of the Visiting Art/ist programme is to offer artists the opportunity to present their work in a space that allows for diverse encounters.

Helena Kauppila is a mathematician turned visual artist. She was born in London in 1982 and grew up in Finland and the United States. After completing her undergraduate studies at the California Institute of Technology, she received her PhD in mathematics from Columbia University. In addition, she is a recipient of the Reginald Marsh and Felicia Meyer Marsh Scholarship at the Art Students League of New York, where she studied under Larry Poons and Anita Steckel. Kauppila has previously held an artist residency in Istanbul, and has had solo exhibitions in Helsinki and New York.

The exhibition of the works was curated by Mika Minetti.

A catalogue was published for the exhibition that includes a large number of illustrations and text contributions by Mika Minetti, Anne Waak and Lotte Laub.