Born in Belarus, Helen Shulkin graduated with a Specialist Diploma in Fine Arts and Drawing (specialization: Folk Arts and Crafts) from the Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maksim Tank (BSPU), Minsk, Belarus. She has been based in Norderstedt (Hamburg metropolitan region), Germany, since 2020.

Statement

I build paintings as structures under pressure. At first glance, they read architecturally: overhangs, supports, planes, passages, and barriers regulate the gaze and the distribution of weight – constriction, passage, congestion, pull. Space appears as a condition rather than a place.

At the same time, the support is from the outset a layered body. Oil accumulates, gathers at the edges, and is either sealed or left open. I work in cycles of construction and exposure: on canvas, the image builds in dense layers; on paper, I apply layers and cut back into them with a scalpel – scraping, lifting, tearing. The support is allowed to overreact: delamination becomes part of the structure.

In some works, a sealed pocket of pigment lies within the work; a cut breaks it open, releasing a fluid trace that follows pressure, gravity, and chance. What first appears as a spatial order shifts, in the act of viewing, into a bodily condition. What matters is what a surface can hold – and where it no longer can.

EDUCATION

1996-2001 Fine Arts and Drawing (specialization: Folk Arts and Crafts), Specialist Diploma, Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maksim Tank (BSPU), Minsk, Belarus

Solo & two-person exhibitions

2025 Structures, KURA Gallery, Hamburg, Germany (two-person exhibition)
2022 Moving Cities: a changing metropolis, Anise Gallery, London, UK (two-person exhibition)
2021 Solo exhibition within the framework of the KinoHafen forum, Kommunales Kino METROPOLIS, Hamburg, Germany (funded by the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media)
2018 Solo exhibition of prize-winning artists (OSTEN Biennial of Drawing), Gallery OSTEN, Skopje, North Macedonia

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2026 49th Art Prize of the Cultural Foundation of Sparkasse Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany (nominated)
2025 NORDWESTKUNST, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Wilhelmshaven, Germany (nominated)
2025 48th Art Prize of the Cultural Foundation of Sparkasse Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany (nominated)
2025 The Shape it Takes, Galerie Grolman, Berlin, Germany
2024 Future Perfect, Durden and Ray Gallery, Los Angeles, US
2023 FORWARD, Von Fraunberg Art Gallery & Taylor Wessing, Düsseldorf, Germany
2023 Unheimlich.Grossartig, Atelierhaus Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
2021 Inspire, D-Contemporary Gallery, London, UK
2020 OSTEN Biennial of Drawing, National Gallery of North Macedonia, Skopje, North Macedonia (nominated)
2020 Cultivate Presents, Cultivate Gallery, London, UK

ART FAIRS

2025 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, The Summer Edition, London, UK (represented by Anise Gallery)
2024 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London, UK (represented by Anise Gallery)

BENEFIT / CHARITY (SELECTED)

2021 Charity auction (benefit), in cooperation with Sotheby’s and Rotary Clubs Vienna-West, Vienna, Austria

CURATORIAL PRACTICE & ACTIVISM

2020 Founder and Director, New Belarus Art (gUG), Germany — a non-profit platform supporting Belarusian artists impacted by political repression and displacement
2021 Hostages, exhibition of Belarusian protest art (curator), in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, St. Martini Church, Braunschweig, Germany
2020 Hostages, exhibition of Belarusian protest art (curator), in cooperation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany (Nordkirche), St. Petri Church, Hamburg, Germany
2020 Identification, exhibition of Belarusian protest art (curator), in cooperation with the Nordkirche, St. Mary’s Church, Lübeck, Germany

NOMINATIONS & AWARDS

2026 Nomination: 49th Art Prize of the Cultural Foundation of Sparkasse Karlsruhe, Germany
2025 Nomination: NORDWESTKUNST 2025, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Germany
2025 Nomination: 48th Art Prize of the Cultural Foundation of Sparkasse Karlsruhe, Germany
2020 Nomination: OSTEN Biennial of Drawing, Skopje, North Macedonia (National Gallery of North Macedonia / Gallery OSTEN)
2018 Winner: OSTEN Award (individual presentation), OSTEN Biennial of Drawing, North Macedonia (National Gallery of North Macedonia / Gallery OSTEN)
2016 Nomination: OSTEN Biennial of Drawing, Skopje, North Macedonia (National Gallery of North Macedonia / Gallery OSTEN)

PUBLICATIONS

2026 Painting Spaces that are Extensions of Us with Helen Shulkin, Suboart Magazine Nr. 56, Lisbon, Portugal
2023 I Will Survive, Body & Soul, No. 41, Corvinus Presse, Berlin, Germany. (handbound artist publication; signed original work)
2023 Ritmo, color y composición, THE CORE Design (special issue: CHAIN + SIMAN+ Architectural Design), text by Nayeli Hernández Flores, pp. 58–67, Mexico City, Mexico, 2023
2021 Imagine All the People, Body & Soul, No. 36a, Corvinus Presse, Berlin, Germany. (handbound artist publication; signed original work)
2020 People Have the Power, Body & Soul, No. 33, Corvinus Presse, Berlin, Germany. (handbound artist publication; signed original work)
2018 Osten Biennial of Drawing: Skopje 2018, ed. by Kornelija Koneska, Skopje: Osten, 2018. Featuring the artist’s award-winning work. ISBN 978-608-4837-04-6. Copy held in the collection of the National and University Library “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Skopje.
2018 The Best Abstract Artist of the Month, The Guide Artists Magazine, Issue 14, April, Spain.
2018 Cover image / feature, Office et Culture, Issue 48, Paris, France.
2018 Posturbanity, ARTICULATE, Issue 15, Denmark.
2017 You’ll Never Walk Alone, Body & Soul, No. 28, Corvinus Presse, Berlin, Germany. (handbound artist publication; signed original work)
2016 Early One Morning, Body & Soul, No. 26, Corvinus Presse, Berlin, Germany. (handbound artist publication; signed original work)

COLLECTIONS

German Literature Archive Marbach, Germany — signed original works published in Body & Soul / Corvinus Presse
Berlin State Library, Germany — signed original works published in Body & Soul / Corvinus Presse
Corporate collections (selected): Rolfe Judd (London); MATTER Architects (Auckland); Blankpage Architects (Beirut)

GALLERIES & COLLABORATIONS

Anise Gallery, London, UK
Von Fraunberg Art Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
MinEastry of Postcollapse Art and Culture (MPAC), Zurich, Switzerland (offspace / project space)

MEMBERSHIP

BBK Hamburg, Germany