Helen Shulkin makes paintings that read like architecture and behave like bodies. Her works explore how load, support, containment and intervention shape pictorial structure. On canvas, she builds dense layers of oil paint; on paper, she works through layering and uncovering, cutting, scraping, lifting and removing material so that the surface itself can resist, yield and change.

In some works, sealed pockets of pigment are embedded beneath the surface. When opened through an incision, the enclosed material is released and responds to pressure, gravity and chance. The act of uncovering does not simply reveal something already present; it alters the structure itself and contributes to the formation of a new spatial order.

Across painting and works on paper, Shulkin is interested in how load and intervention alter what provides support, what is held, and the relationship between inside and outside. Architecture and body emerge from the same material conditions rather than as fixed representations.

Her work has been presented at institutions and exhibition venues including Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven and the National Gallery of North Macedonia. She was nominated for NORDWESTKUNST 2025 and for the Art Prize of the Kulturstiftung der Sparkasse Karlsruhe. Her works are held in public collections including the German Literature Archive Marbach and the Berlin State Library. Alongside her artistic practice, she is the founder and director of New Belarus Art.

Exhibition & Projects (Selection)

2025

NORDWESTKUNST 2025, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Wilhelmshaven, Deutschland (Ausstellung der nominierten Künstler)

48. Kunstpreis der Kulturstiftung der Sparkasse Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Deutschland (Ausstellung der nominierten Künstler)

Structures, KURA Gallery, Hamburg, Deutschland (Zwei-Personen-Ausstellung)

The Shape it Takes, Galerie Grolman, Berlin, Deutschland

2024

Future Perfect, Durden and Ray Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2023

FORWARD, Von Fraunberg Art Gallery & Taylor Wessing, Düsseldorf, Deutschland

2022

Moving Cities: a changing metropolis, Anise Gallery, London, UK

2020

OSTEN Biennial of Drawing, National Gallery of Macedonia, Skopje, Nordmazedonien

2018

Solo exhibition of awarded artists, Gallery OSTEN, Skopje, Nordmazedonien

2015

Frauenmuseum Bonn, Art Fair 25, Bonn, Deutschland