Mer­cedes Helnwein’s bio reads like the plot line of an implau­si­ble Hol­ly­wood film, too good to be true. Born in Vienna, Aus­tria, she was raised in a cas­tle in Ire­land. Her father is world famous painter-​photographer-​performance artists Got­tfried Hel­nwein. She is beau­ti­ful and styl­ish, and she counts art, fash­ion and Hol­ly­wood lumi­nar­ies amongst her clos­est friends. The icing on the cake? She’s enor­mously tal­ented. Her pre­cisely detailed, cin­e­mat­i­cally eerie draw­ings have been col­lected by every­one from Nico­las Cage and Beck, to Damien Hirst, who bought out her entire “Whistling Past the Grave­yard” exhi­bi­tion ear­lier this year. Her work has the restrained sus­pense of Hitch­cock at his best: unset­tling with­out the need for explicit details. Her metic­u­lous tech­nique is a neat coun­ter­bal­ance for the ambigu­ous­ness of her scenes and their inhabitants.

And she is not just a tal­ented artist. She’s also a pub­lished author. Her novel “The Poten­tial Haz­ards of Hes­ter Day,” was pub­lished in 2008. Helnwein’s tal­ent for nar­ra­tive ten­sion shows itself in her visual art as well. Critic Peter Frank said of her work, “Mer­cedes Hel­nwein does not so much tell sto­ries or even cap­ture moments in her draw­ings as she trig­gers pos­si­bil­i­ties — the pos­si­bil­i­ties being vaguely unlikely, vaguely unsa­vory, and not-​so-​vaguely men­ac­ing, rather like inverse Magrittes.” Open­ing this Sat­ur­day Novem­ber 13^th, Hel­nwein will have a new solo show at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Los Ange­les enti­tled “Temp­ta­tion to be Good,” fea­tur­ing new large scale works in oil pas­tel. The open­ing is sure to be a well attended event, and will be hosted by Helnwien’s col­lec­tor and friend, Beck.

From Merry Karnowsky’s press release: “In her new exhi­bi­tion, Hel­nwein uses oil pas­tels to cre­ate a sul­try style that is a nou­veau hybrid between paint­ing and draw­ing. The series of large-​scale women’s faces, exe­cuted in thick, Tech­ni­color hues, are both vibrant and pas­sive, yield­ing a deci­sive ten­sion in their exe­cu­tion. Although dis­creet in their appear­ance, there is noth­ing mod­er­ate about the faces of these girls. The sto­ries that dig them­selves through their expres­sions — the slightly parted lips, raised eye­brows, side­ward glances or wide-​open expres­sions — although direct, are dis­qui­et­ingly enig­matic. The calamity pre­ceed­ing their reac­tions has been pushed off the edge of the paper, and the result­ing limbo is seduc­tive and mes­mer­iz­ing. Influ­enced by South­ern Gothic tra­di­tions, the car­toons of Robert Crumb, Nine­teenth Cen­tury Russ­ian lit­er­a­ture, Amer­i­can Motel cul­ture, and the Delta Blues, Helnwein’s style is a sub­tle bal­ance of humor and qui­etly bizarre, cin­e­matic sus­pense. Accom­pa­ny­ing the exhi­bi­tion is a two-​minute video pro­jec­tion, which picks up where the draw­ings leave off and gives the audi­ence a back­door to the goings-​on in the draw­ings and paint­ings. The artist’s brother, com­poser Ali Hel­nwein, con­tributed the music.”

Open­ing Recep­tion Sat­ur­day, Novem­ber 13,
Hosted by Beck

MERRY KARNOWSKY GALLERY
170 S. LA BREA AVENUE
(IN THE ART 170 BUILDING)
LOS ANGELES, CA 90036
323.933.4408

Exhi­bi­tion Dates:
Novem­ber 13 — Decem­ber 11, 2010
Gallery Hours:
Tues — Sat 12-​6pm

Images Cour­tesy of: the artists web­site, and Lost at E Minor

Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, Ali Helnwein, Beck, Damien Hirst, Gottfried Helnwein, Mercedes Helnwien, Peter Frank, Rene Magritte

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“Till Death Do Us Part.” Gallery Heist »

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 10th, 2010 at 8:45 pm and is filed under Art, Event, Illustration.
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