photo by MIchaella Jelin
About
Evan Blackwell Helgeson
Hi! I am an Artist, working primarily in painting and murals, based in Atlanta, GA. I received my M.F.A from the School of The Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts in Boston, MA, and my B.F.A from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia.
Artist Statement:
Both overtly and through the canon of art history we are taught in school; I was told that abstraction wasn’t for me. That it was white men in the early to mid-century that owned this form of art making. I allowed this mistruth to guide my art making for all too long. But as I looked deeper into who we define the canon of art history, who writes that narrative in the first place, I began to uncover the reality that abstraction belongs to every human, in every culture, of any race, and of every gender. It has always been the building block of visual culture and design, created and cultivated primarily by the hands of women and people of color. We have referred to it as “artifact” and collectively decided that this word values less than “Art.” This erasure made easier because history never sought to learn the names of those that created the work.
As I continue to research, I have come to unlearn what so much of our art history has taught and to learn that abstraction historically has largely been the work of women and nonwhite communities across the globe. This visual archive can be seen in the work of the Quilters of Gee’s Bend, in mothers passing stitched traditions down to the next generation, or the quilts created in the beginning of feminist movement; to the Aboriginal paintings from Australia, or the exceptionally vast array of textiles from African nations like Kuba cloth from The Congo; and seen further still in the Egyptian hieroglyphs and Incan quipu forms of storytelling; and countless other art forms and objects relegated to the “other” or “low brow decoration and craft” archives in our museums and institutions. If anything, abstraction is one of the most timeless and globalized forms of art making. It is historically formal and functional—a way of communicating as well as interpreting the world around us.
I’m looking into these archives, that span so far beyond one particular art movement, which are as vast as culture itself and as intimate as an individual’s own memory banks. Abstraction in many of its forms is as old as art and civilization, so much so that that our pattern seeking brains have it encoded to know how to interact with abstract artwork even if the viewer doesn’t quite have the vernacular for it yet—it speaks “to the sublime of the human spirit” (Reductionism in art and Brain Science, Kendal). Working abstractly engages me as I work with the viewer as they see it. It calls on both of our memories and histories, forming connectivity between two humans. This is the power of abstraction when it is released from the annals of art history and actualized by working hands of many different colors, ethnicities and genders. It calls to our humanness.
Therefore, I am more confidently trusting my own form of abstraction and mark making in my practice as an act to take up space for the work that has been done and will continue to be created, not just by white men in mid century America, but by women and Black and Brown communities across the globe for centuries; and to feel the connectivity of my intuitive gesture with the vast global archive of abstraction
And as we consider conversations and actions of decolonizing the art world, we should consider these archives as not just “decorative artifact” and look to amplify the voices and works of women and BIPOC who have been working in this way with little recognition before, during, and beyond this current moment. - from my artist statement: archives of abstraction. EMBH.
For information on commissions, mural inquiries, or collection information fill out the form, or email me at hello@evanblackwellart.com
CV
Education:
2018 MFA, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, MA
2016 BFA, Painting Cum Laude, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Selected Collections and murals:
American Express, Centurion Lounge, Atlanta International Airport, GA. Mural, 2024
Sora, Midtown, Atlanta. Paintings and mural, 2023-2024
Portrait Coffee Shop, Atlanta, GA. Mural
Visa Collection, Atlanta, GA
Fulton County Art Collection
Publications:
2024 “7 Atlanta Artists To Inspire Your First Weekend of 2021”
2020 “Worldly Possessions” photo ft. in Bon Appetite Magazine Nov. 2020 p 34
2020 “ ‘Fine Art’ Podcast” interview, hosted by Keegan Shiner season 1 ep. 3
2019 “The Webster Court Project” review in Sculpture Magazine, by B. Amore
2019 “Meet Evan Blackwell” Voyager ATL http://voyageatl.com/interview/meet-evan-blackwell-of-evan-blackwell-art/
Selected Exhibitions:
Solo Exhibitions
2023 Edge Of The Familiar, Nahcotta Gallery, Portsmouth, NH
2023 Inexhaustible Offering, MINT Gallery, Atlanta GA
2023 I Know The Place, “Perspectives + Perceptions” Spalding Nix Fine Art, Atlanta GA
2021 Cadence, CIRCA Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, online
Group Exhibitions:
2024 New South V, Kai Lin Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2023 Summer Ensemble, Swan Coach House, Atlanta, GA
2022 Earth Body, Echo Contemporary, Atlanta, GA
2022 Sight and Sounds, MoCA GA, Atlanta, GA
2022 Grounded, Spalding Nix Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2021 Wellspring, Spalding Nix Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2021 MoCA GA art auction, MoCA GA, Atlanta, GA
2020 Holiday Ensemble Show, Spalding Nix Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2020 Hope/Revolution, Stay At Home Gallery, Paris, TN
2019 Stacks Squares Mural Project, Atlanta, GA
2018 Webster Court Project, Webster Court Project, Newton, MA
2018 (Re)generate, MFA Thesis Exhibition: (T)here, Aidikman Galleries and Lane
Hall at Tufts University
2018 YES, group show, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts
2017 Artists of New England Juried Art Exhibition, Silvermine Art Gallery, New Canaan, CT
2017 Marking Thoughts, group show, Mission Hill Gallery at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts
2017 Scenario B, group show, Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA
2017 Light in the Storm juried photo exhibition, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University
2016 41 Annual Lyndon House Juried Exhibition; juror: Mr. Jock Reynolds, Director of the Yale University Art Gallery
Selected Grants:
2018 Montague Travel Grant, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts
2017 Dean’s Research Grant, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts