Ella Helman was born in 1960 in Poland. She lives and works in Paris. Her artistic practice blossoms from the many disciplines she has studied, endowing her with rigour and a critical spirit while sharpening her eye for art, colour and philosophy.
A multidisciplinary artist, Helman works with acrylic and oil on canvas – sometimes combined with any matter that crosses her path – as well as sculpture, through human-scale structures she animates during performances. For over twenty years, she has assembled canvases, wooden panels and discarded materials to create modular 'painting-sculptures'. Her dense and multifaceted compositions – departing from a certain minimalism – reflect a constantly evolving society, rooted in overproduction and overconsumption.
Thus, in a perpetual ballet between expressive abstraction and formal realism, Helman's artistic sensitivity revolves around colour and movement. Her powerful gesture pays tribute to moments of joy. To quieten the world's sadness, she invokes symbols of beauty and talismans, breathing a sense of dream into the dullness of everyday life.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Ella Helman's artistic process is rooted in instinct and sensoriality. It draws upon her lived experiences, unfolding through spontaneous movement and bathed in colour.
Her composite artworks – assembled from multiple canvases, panels and discarded materials – embody societal change through movement. Beyond capturing bodily gestures, she translates the evolution of the world around her. A world where cultures intermingle to give rise to new ones. A world that vibrates at a frantic pace, where what exists today may no longer exist tomorrow. A world that plunges into digital networks and surrenders itself to artificial intelligence. Confronted with these shifting realities, Helman's art, in turn, transforms – at times borrowing objects from the real world – in a constant reflection on art itself.
Through her work, the artist composes a new realm in which past, present and future intertwine, bearing witness to transformation and questioning the very notion of time. By invoking the origins of civilisations through an iconography inspired by ancient myths and artefacts, she calls upon the world's wisdom. In a meditative gesture, imbued with the teachings of the past, Helman establishes a positive and optimistic form of art. She transforms sadness into learning and wards off negative emotions through the evocation of beauty and talismans. She thus repeatedly explores the myth of the Three Graces, drawn to their symbolism of giving, receiving and participating – an allegory of her vision of art as a celebration of life, joy and sharing.
Thus, while the act of creation grants Helman a sense of fulfilment and happiness, she seeks to transmit this same joy of living – inseparable from hope – to those who encounter her work. Her paintings invite us to dance through life, guided by our emotions.