photo by MIchaella Jelin
About
Evan Blackwell Helgeson
Evan Blackwell Helgeson is an artist based in Atlanta, GA. She received her M.F.A from the School of The Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston, MA; and her B.F.A from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA.
Through her mixed media practice, Evan explores the varied archives and traditions of abstraction that permeate and inform memory, culture, perception, and history; with a primary focus on the means by which nature and place shape our individual and collective lived experience. Her work is focused on the inextricable intertwining of abstraction and representation and the multifaceted relationship each has to the construction of memory and reality.
Evan’s work exhibits in various solo and group exhibitions across the Atlanta area and beyond. Her works and custom, site-specific murals, can be found in corporate, commercial, hospitality, and residential spaces, as well as various private collections both local and abroad.
get in touch
For commissions, licensing, and commercial projects or to schedule a virtual or in person studio visit fill out the form linked above or email me at hello@evanblackwellart.com
Notes on my abstract art practice:
Both overtly and through the taught canon of art history, I was told that abstraction wasn’t for me; that it was white men in the early to mid-century that created and owned this form of art making. But as I continued to look and research deeper into who is written into and out of history–and who writes that narrative in the first place–the reality became clear that the largely white male cohort credited with abstraction’s inception were not the only ones practicing at the time; and furthermore, that abstraction has and always will belong to every human, in every culture, of every race, and of every gender. It has always been the building block of visual culture and design, much of which has been created and cultivated with pride by the hands of women and people of color. Institutions have referred to it as “artifact” or “craft” and collectively decided that these works value less than the movements of “High Art” that referenced it. This distinction leading inevitably to canonical erasure, made easier because history never sought to learn the names of those that created the work.
I have come to reframe what so much of art history has centered; and in turn, to amplify the reality that, historically, abstraction has largely been the work of women and nonwhite communities across time and place and is one of the most timeless and globalized forms of art making. Like laughter, grief, love, awe and most utterances of the human spirit, it knows no borders. It is historically and inherently conceptual, formal, and functional—a way of communicating as well as interpreting the world around us. Abstract artwork is collaborative; perpetually asking for both the artist’s and the viewer’s individual memories, emotions, and perspectives to complete the work; made new and made whole by the act of interpretation. There is an intrinsic hospitality offered by abstraction; sympathetically calling to our desire to understand and to be understood.
Like nature and culture–this archive of abstraction is not a static relic; but is rather a beating, evolving, endlessly generative entity that can be drawn from and added to; being made into something more complex and diverse along the way. It is here, rooted in this ever-changing and expanding archive that I center my practice. Within this context, my work looks to nature and its systems of cyclicality, growth, and change that parallel our own. Through my practice, I seek to visually articulate the multifaceted qualities of recollection, reimagination, and remaking as functions of growth and transformation; as well as explore the distinct environmental impressions that contextualize our memories, provide emotional feedback, and influence the way we see the world and others; while we, too, leave reciprocal traces of ourselves on it.
My paintings oscillate between faceted, quilt-like works that explore the compulsive tendency towards compartmentatalization and the desire to repeat, reframe, rethink and repurpose; and more fluid pieces that seemingly generate beyond the canvas’ edges, calling to the passage of time, fluctuations of being, and the natural and forceful rhythms of nature. Within my works I employ a dynamic interplay between shifting color, delicate negative space, and dense layers of form –where edges meet and morph, and colors and opacities shift–inviting a closer look.
My research centers on the expanding scope of abstraction, as well as the concept that the construction of self, memory, and reality are in a constant state of flux; continually molded and informed by the dynamic collaboration of our experiences, perspectives, decisions, and the places—tangible and intangible— in which they occur. Like the act of painting itself, my work seeks to create the feeling of concurrently experiencing an event and the resulting memory of it. Through each painting, I aim to evoke a sense of constant transformation; capturing the simultaneity of creating, deconstructing, and remaking anew; of experiencing, archiving, and remembering; of tracking in marks, gestures, and fields of color our own evolution.
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
2025 Perennial Trace, “In Medias Res” Spalding Nix Fine Art, Atlanta GA
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 When She Rest, She Blooms, TILA Studios, Atlanta, GA
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