Karoliina Hellberg

Karoliina Hellberg

Karoliina Hellberg’s work immerses the viewer in a world of repeated imagery, signs, and symbols, a labyrinth of spaces and places, combining layers, forms, and elements. The artist blends dream-like visions and narratives that merge the every day with the ethereal. This is explored with pictorial tropes such as indoor scenes, plants, flowers, clouds, animals, and textiles, which are remembered, imagined, or inspired by researched source material. 

Hellberg paints the space between memories and fantasies, heightened by her recurring use of intense colour throughout her works. Confident yet sensual brush strokes merge the foreground and background, highlighting areas rich in detail while allowing the works to appear flat and challenge our understanding of how we navigate the physical world. Employing these techniques, Hellberg builds a captivating and enchanting world.  

Karoliina Hellberg was born in 1987 in Porvoo, Finland. She lives and works in Helsinki. In 2018, the artist was awarded the prestigious Pro Arte award from the Didrichsen Art Museum. Hellberg’s work has been exhibited at the Helsinki Art Museum, Didrichsen Art Museum, Amos Rex, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Kuopio Art Museum and British Museum, amongst many others. Her artworks exist in major foundations and institutions such as Saastamoinen Foundation, Helsinki Art Museum, The Academy of Fine Arts Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, The Finnish Art Society, Didrichsen Art Museum, Hämeenlinna Art Museum and British Museum.  

“Paintings are true, but not true to life. I have not just decided to build interiors out of this rather messy, chaotic world and fill them full of beautiful objects and, maybe, lots of flowers. The spaces and moods in my paintings have been influenced by the environment in which I grew up and the kind of places I feel to be important. Since the spaces in my paintings are collages of metaphorical and psychological elements, they usually don’t reflect just one place or experience. I think you can see sorrow, melancholy and fear in my works, but also happiness and enjoyment. It’s a way of looking at the world from your own point of view, things are often complex and the same space contains different truths.”
Karoliina Hellberg