Bruce Helander…
City Link magazine called Bruce Helander “Arguably the most recognized and successful collage artist in the country…” and Kenworth Moffett, the former director of the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, said in Gold Coast magazine that “If there was a Pulitzer Prize for collage, Helander would surely win it.”
Helander is an art critic, arts writer, curator and artist whose specialty is collage and assemblage. He has a master’s degree in painting from the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, where he later became the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs of the college. He is a former White House fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts and has won the South Florida Cultural Consortium fellowship for professional achievement in the visual arts. He is one of two 2014 inductees to the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, Florida’s most prestigious arts and culture honor (the other is musician Tom Petty).
Eden, 2002
City Link magazine called Bruce Helander “Arguably the most recognized and successful collage artist in the country…” and Kenworth Moffett, the former director of the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, said in Gold Coast magazine that “If there was a Pulitzer Prize for collage, Helander would surely win it.”
His work is in over fifty museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Smithsonian, Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art and Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles. The artist and his work has been the subject of 100 reviews and articles in numerous publications, including Art in America, ARTnews, and The Washington Post.
Helander is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Art Economist magazine and recently exhibited his work at Georgia Scherman Projects (Toronto), Corzine Fine Art (Los Angeles), Peter Marcelle Gallery (Bridgehampton, New York), Cornell Museum of Art (Delray Beach), and ArtHouse 429 (West Palm Beach). Most currently, his work was shown by Arcature Fine Art at Art Miami and Art Miami New York/Pier 94 and by Tansey Contemporary at Art Wynwood. Helander is now focusing on a retrospective of his collages and paintings for the Coral Springs Museum of Art, scheduled for 2017, and his collages are included in “Open This End,” a five-year traveling museum show of works from the celebrated Blake Byrne collection in Los Angeles, currently at the Nasher Museum of Art.
Key Aspects of Bruce Helander's Art:
Collage and Assemblage: He is known for his intricate and often whimsical collages that incorporate vintage imagery, such as those inspired by Tokyo matchbook advertising.
Influences: His work draws inspiration from art historical movements like Cubism and Abstract Expressionism.
Style: Helander's collages often feature a sense of surprise, exuberance, and historical references, sometimes with a touch of comic spice. He masterfully arranges appropriated images, often sanding them down to create a vintage aesthetic.
Recurring Themes and Series: Notable series include works that explore dreams and dream states, incorporating elements like "headlessness" to represent the entry into a dream. Other series, like "Love Letters," focus on letterforms combined with nostalgic vintage images and vibrant colors. He also creates "Eccentric Landscapes" using map fragments and meteorological references.
Recognition and Collections: Helander's work is widely recognized and collected, appearing in over fifty permanent museum collections, including the Guggenheim, Whitney, and Metropolitan Museums. He was also inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.
Notable Works: Some examples of his artwork include "Lilies", "Printemps Eternelle Jeunesse", "Storm Showers", and "Spiral Stare".
Commissions: He has undertaken commission work for institutions like The New Yorker, film festivals, charities, and even the Vatican.