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* [http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/whistling-past-the-graveyard-merry-karnowsky/3978 ''BlackBook'' magazine, "Whistling Past the Graveyard"]
* [http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/whistling-past-the-graveyard-merry-karnowsky/3978 ''BlackBook'' magazine, "Whistling Past the Graveyard"]
* [http://www.thisisbrandx.com/2009/11/mercedes-helnweins-east-of-eden-at-merry-karnowsky-1114.html Brand X (''Los Angeles Times''), "East of Eden"]
* [http://www.thisisbrandx.com/2009/11/mercedes-helnweins-east-of-eden-at-merry-karnowsky-1114.html Brand X (''Los Angeles Times''), "East of Eden"]
* [http://www.laweekly.com/events/east-of-eden-mercedes-melnwein-drawings-759375/ ''LA Weekly'', "East of Eden"]
* [http://www.laweekly.com/2009-11-12/calendar/to-helnwein-and-back ''LA Weekly'', "East of Eden"]
* [http://articles.latimes.com/2004/apr/08/news/wk-ungallery8 ''Los Angeles Times'', "Rooms with a View of America’s Heartland"]
* [http://articles.latimes.com/2004/apr/08/news/wk-ungallery8 ''Los Angeles Times'', "Rooms with a View of America’s Heartland"]
* [http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/0401/1224243788136.html ''The Irish Times'', "A mixture of assertive and uncertain"]
* [http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/0401/1224243788136.html ''The Irish Times'', "A mixture of assertive and uncertain"]
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* [http://issuu.com/mfmagazine/docs/issue9?mode=embed&documentId=090212001522-1e9229eb0fc947ef923db58445d44017&layout=wood ''MF'' magazine, "Mercedes Helnwein"]
* [http://issuu.com/mfmagazine/docs/issue9?mode=embed&documentId=090212001522-1e9229eb0fc947ef923db58445d44017&layout=wood ''MF'' magazine, "Mercedes Helnwein"]
* [http://themagla.com/cgi-bin/artmagla/review.cgi?ID=267 ''THE Magazine'', Los Angeles, "Whistling Past the Graveyard"]
* [http://themagla.com/cgi-bin/artmagla/review.cgi?ID=267 ''THE Magazine'', Los Angeles, "Whistling Past the Graveyard"]



== References ==
== References ==

Revision as of 21:56, 10 January 2010


Mercedes Helnwein is a fine artist, writer, and video artist. She lives in Ireland and Los Angeles, CA.


Family and Early Life

Mercedes Helnwein was born in Vienna, Austria. Her father is Austro-Irish artist Gottfried Helnwein and her mother is Renate Helnwein. She and her brothers, Cyril, Ali, and Wolfgang Amadeus, have often modeled for their father’s work as children.[1] Helnwein and her family live in a castle in Tipperary, Ireland. In 2000, she began dividing her time between Ireland and the U.S. Her studio is located in downtown Los Angeles.[2]

Fine Art

Mercedes Helnwein is known for her large-scale drawings, most of which are done with black pencil. The others employ ink, colored pencils, and pastels. As described in New York Magazine, her work is “immaculately executed…like dramatically lit, attractively cast indie flicks.” [3] Helnwein’s art debuted in 2003, with her first group exhibition hosted in Los Angeles by art collector and actor Jason Lee. This exhibition was followed by regular self-instigated one-night-shows at spaces throughout L.A., often with photographer Alex Prager[2] with whom she founded Devils Porchlight Press[4] in 2004. Thereafter, Helnwein began to exhibit in New York, Berlin, Dublin and London.

Mercedes Helnwein contributed art to the Beck album, The Information (2006),[5] and appeared in his music video for " Gamma Ray," filmed by photographer and filmmaker Autumn de Wilde.[6]

She is represented by the following galleries: Blackston Gallery (New York), Merry Karnowsky Gallery (Los Angeles), The Shooting Gallery (San Francisco), Pool Gallery (Berlin), and Bespoke Gallery (Dublin).

Publications that discuss her work include the Los Angeles Times, BlackBook, Los Angeles Confidential, Los Angeles Magazine, Nylon, New York Magazine, New York Art Magazine, i-D, Juxtapoz, The Irish Times, Irish Independent, Berliner Morgenpost (Berlin), Die Welt, Tank Magazine (UK), Blag (UK) Lodown magazine (Berlin), Metal magazine (Spain), and Yodona (Spain).

Film

In 2008, Mercedes Helnwein included video as a medium in her work. Her brother, Ali Helnwein, composed the scores. They continue collaborating as filmmaker and composer. Her short films, “Faking it,” “Whistling Past the Graveyard,” and “East of Eden,”[7] are reminiscent of the strange scenes depicted in her drawings.


Writing

In 2004, her travelogue, “Devil Got Religion,” covered the 15-day road trip with Alex Prager and Beth Riesgraf for their “America Motel” installation.[8]

In 2006, she signed with the literary agency, Ed Victor Ltd., based in London. Other representation includes the New York agencies, Fletcher & Company[9] and William Clark Associates.[10]

Her debut novel, The Potential Hazards of Hester Day, was released in February 2008 by Simon & Schuster.[11] Publishers Weekly reviewed the work of literary fiction as a “funny, offbeat debut novel...[Helnwein’s] soul-searching adventure is reliably entertaining and her obligatory final-page epiphany feels just right.”[12]

Quotes

Employing a precise but unprepossessing realism in her drawing, Helnwein renders strange lighting conditions, odd clothing (odd at least within the context), and even odder gestures. Her models are lissome but spooked, as if caught, alone, in the first minutes of a slasher movie -- although they evince far more self-awareness than the dispensable cheerleader types who usually get the buzzsaw. Indeed, the heightened sensitivity that flickers across these youthful but wary faces may be the most radical aspect of Helnwein’s series: she portrays what is probably the Western world’s most ogled demographic as people, not mere objects of the gaze. Invested with such affect, Helnwein’s subjects need only hold a toy or a kitchen implement a certain way and, in the raking light, it takes on dramatic portent.[13]

- Peter Frank, THE Magazine, Los Angeles


There is a sense of protagonists engrossed in their own disturbed, hallucinatory worlds. The protagonists are usually young women, and they are alternatively strong, self-contained, in control, and possible victims. While there is a theatrical air to it all, a sense of make-believe, Helnwein maintains a genuine edginess as well, so that we can’t be quite sure that everything will be okay. It is stylish noir, delivered with considerable bravura.[14]

- The Irish Times


Helnwein's drawings -- feminine and smooth as porcelain -- portray her subjects as they cover their ears and shy away from unknowns; they sit with toy trucks, alligators, antlers, and handguns, all props that suggest that even though they wear high-heels and fancy dresses, there's still something not quite right.[15]

- Nylon magazine


Her visual works feature women juggling defiance and restraint… She came of age in a Viennese castle, her face bandaged, mouth filled with medical instruments (all in the name of art). With her forthcoming novel, and new solo shows on the horizon, the next generation is out to prove just how strange—and genius—she can get....[1]

- BlackBook Magazine


...an exciting mixture of purity, mysticism and raging beauty that follows the concept of no rules.[16]

- Lodown magazine (Berlin)


Mercedes epitomizes the true pursuance of art, and my hat's off to her for maintaining that thing that too many creative folks either never had, or let go of because they've somehow lost their way. I'm talking about sincerity, and purity. Mercedes has the kind of discipline you might find in a great concert pianist; she never stops working. And with artists like Mercedes, I can always rest assured that there is still in fact a real drive somewhere out there to maintain a tradition of intelligent and sincere artistic progression.[17]

- Jason Lee, Anthem magazine

Interviews


Reviews

References

  1. ^ a b Haramis, Nick (Dec/Jan 2008). “The New Literary Enfant Terrible.” Blackbook. Retrieved 2010-01-04 at http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/the-new-literary-enfant-terrible/1546#When:17:01:00Z
  2. ^ a b Tung, Tommy (Aug 2009). “One Million Questions for One Mercedes Helnwein,” Part One and Two. Juxtapoz. Retrieved 2010-01-04 at http://www.juxtapoz.com/Features/exclusive-one-million-questions-for-one-mercedes-helnwein and http://www.juxtapoz.com/Features/exclusive-interview-with-mercedes-helnwein-part-two
  3. ^ Wolff, Rachel (July 2007). “Making Cindy Sherman Proud.” New York Magazine. Retrieved 2010-01-04 at http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/07/making_cindy_sherman_proud.html
  4. ^ http://www.mbfala.com/publications/_54/
  5. ^ http://www.artistdirect.com/artist/mercedes-helnwein/3818009
  6. ^ http://www.answers.com/topic/the-information
  7. ^ http://www.mkgallery.com/pressreleases/Mercedes%2009%20Press%20Release.pdf
  8. ^ Gelt, Jessica (Apr 2004). “Rooms With a View of America’s Heartland.” Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-01-04 at http://articles.latimes.com/2004/apr/08/news/wk-ungallery8
  9. ^ http://www.fletcherandco.com/fletcher_clients.html
  10. ^ http://www.wmclark.com/clientsandtitles.html
  11. ^ http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Mercedes-Helnwein/44023180/books
  12. ^ http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6496571.html
  13. ^ Frank, Peter (Oct 2008). “Mercedes Helnwein: Whistling Past the Graveyard.” THE Magazine, Los Angeles. Retrieved 2010-01-05 at http://themagla.com/cgi-bin/artmagla/review.cgi?ID=267
  14. ^ Dunne, Aidan (Apr 2009). “A mixture of the assertive and the uncertain.” Irish Times. Retrieved 2010-01-05 at http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/0401/1224243788136.html
  15. ^ Williams, Kate (May 2008). “Girls Interrupted: Writer and artist Mercedes Helnwein is adept at portraying women on the edge -- though she herself remains far from it.” Nylon.
  16. ^ Rambow, Christoph Johann (May/June 2007). “Vienna Calling.” Lodown magazine (Berlin).
  17. ^ Lee, Jason (Aug 2006). “Kindred Spirit: Mercedes Helnwein epitomizes the true pursuance of art.” Anthem.


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