Residencies
Helen Dennis | RU PartnershipJane Phillips Award International Residency
01 February - 01 March 2016
We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Residency Unlimited Residency is Helen Dennis, a Brooklyn based Artist who will be based in Elysium’s High Street Studio.
Originally from the UK, Helen Dennis moved to New York City in 2002 to study her MFA at Hunter College. Prior to that she studied her BA in Fine Art with honours at the University of the Creative Arts in Canterbury, UK. She has since gone on to create public art works commissioned by the Downtown Alliance of New York, The LAB Gallery for Installation Art, NoLongerEmpty and the DUMBO Arts Festival. Helen’s artwork can also be found in public collections notably of Tiffany & Co. and Avon Inc. She has been a Creative Capital Strategic Planning Fellow at Aljira Center for Contemporary Art and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Helen also participated in the Immigrant Artist Program at New York Foundation for the Arts as a mentor to visiting artists. Helen has shown her work in various exhibitions worldwide and in the US with the support of the Queens Museum, Queens Council of the Arts, Kent County Council and South East Arts UK. Helen has participated in international art residencies with organizations in Beijing, Cyprus, Reykjavik with the Icelandic Arts Association and Caldera Arts in Oregon.
Light, architecture, and urban environments are the focus of Helen’s work. Using alternative photographic processes she creates large installations that are a fusion of drawing and photography. Using layers of drawings on translucent paper she morphs the light into the imagery created; extending the moment in time at which a photograph is created. This process in her art practice focuses on light and it’s role as an integral element within the artwork.
Beyond light, the subject of Helen’s artwork is architecture and the ephemeral qualities of urban environments; shaped by their inhabitants, they present a constant state of flux and kinetic energy. The photo medium appears dominated by drawing; emphasizing the fine lines and understated and seemingly impossible geometric structures that depict the tension and weight of the environment. On close inspection the drawings are abstract and a mass of mangled lines. However when viewed as a whole they read as detailed architectural renderings, which depict the movement and energy found in urban environments.
For more information on Helen’s practice please click here
To find out more about Residency Unlimited please click here
