Private View: 3rd December 6 – 8 pm
4th December 2026 to 21st February 2027

Elizabeth Xi Bauer is pleased to announce Here is the House, an exhibition of new works by Karoliina Hellberg, marking the artist’s first solo presentation at the gallery’s Exmouth Market space. Through a new series of large paintings, works on paper, objects, and a wallpaper composed of lithographs, Hellberg continues to explore how human intentions become embedded within the spaces we inhabit. These spaces, in turn, leave their imprint on the ways we think and perceive. The artist moves fluidly between interior and exterior settings, tracing the relationship between physical surroundings and states of mind. In this new body of work, Hellberg examines how attention is directed and how objects acquire significance through the act of looking.

Hellberg’s work invites the viewer into realms formed by familiar motifs and the residual presence of human touch. Whilst interested in the physical structure of a space, the artist explores metaphorical and psychological currents which underpin the worlds she creates. Houses and gardens are animated through traces of human presence, such as flowers left on a table or water spilling from an overturned glass. Absence becomes a generative force within the work, prompting viewers to consider how spaces continue to evolve beyond the intentions of those who first shaped them. For Hellberg, moments of stillness become a site of possibility within the painting, where change continues to unfold beyond direct human intervention.

The exhibition title, Here is the House, is borrowed from a Depeche Mode song and also pays homage to the late artist Marc Camille Chaimowicz, whose practice has been an important source of inspiration for Hellberg. Chaimowicz’s exploration of domestic space, atmosphere, and the intersection of aesthetic and lived experience resonates throughout the exhibition. This influence is echoed in a series of sculptural elements installed throughout the gallery, including tables and mirrors that appear both as physical objects and as recurring motifs within the paintings themselves. By moving these familiar forms between image and object, Hellberg positions the house as both a physical setting and a conceptual framework through which questions of attention, perception, and human presence unfold.

Hellberg turns to modes of focus as both a mental and embodied condition. Her paintings consider how particular environments may support, direct, or interrupt states of attention, examining how the material world becomes inseparable from the workings of the mind. The artist asks what occurs when we enter a state of focus, how we arrive there, and how that condition shapes our actions. Rather than establishing hierarchies among these elements, everyday objects, plants, and cultivated materials appear as markers of choice and attention. Through architecture, design, and the arrangement of objects, Hellberg explores how surroundings quietly shape the course of our thoughts.

Hellberg’s signature lush palette explores the power of colour to evoke emotions, considering how sensations and states of mind are communicated through hues. Hellberg also employs shifting scales and viewpoints within her paintings: some are an entire room, whilst others are close-up details of, for example, a specific fruit or herb. Through a sensory interplay of colour, the eye moves between the intimate detail and the wider scene; associations form, dissolve and reform, revealing how meaning is shaped by where we direct our attention and what we bring to the act of looking. Hellberg considers how space conditions perception, directing the mind towards certain details while allowing others to recede. Objects and architectural details give rise to stories that the paintings never fully resolve. Seemingly familiar spaces are assembled through fragments, associations, and visual cues that encourage narrative projection while resisting certainty. Hellberg is interested in the speed with which meaning is assigned to images, and how closer inspection can unsettle first impressions.

Drawing on personal experience, imagined worlds, and the recurring symbolic language of objects, Hellberg operates in a collage-like way. Her approach to painting holds a dual meaning: how we process information and memories, and how we subconsciously assemble these fragmented experiences. Individual works function as chapters within a larger trajectory, each connected to the next through acts of observation and making. For Hellberg, there is a comfort in the notion that each moment in the studio leads naturally to the next, forming part of a continuous process. Like the objects in the painting, the studio becomes a space in which one observation often unexpectedly leads to the next composition.

Here is the House explores shifting states of focus and the dissolution of fixed boundaries between interior and exterior worlds, memory and perception, presence and absence. Hellberg’s compositions remain open, encouraging viewers to linger within shifting perspectives and layered imagery rather than settle on a single interpretation. Instead, meaning unfolds gradually through association and reflection, creating a space for sustained attention.

For the object-based works, Karoliina Hellberg has collaborated with Ville Aakula, while the lithographs have been created in collaboration with Ubu Noir. This exhibition is curated by Maria do Carmo M.P. de Pontes.


Notes to Editors

Karoliina Hellberg (born in 1987 in Porvoo, Finland) lives and works in Helsinki, Finland.

In 2015, Karoliina Hellberg graduated with an MA from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, where she also received her BA in 2012. Hellberg studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, UK, in 2013.

Hellberg has participated in residencies at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France; The Academy of Fine Arts Foundation, Helsinki; Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP), Suomenlinna, Helsinki; Academy of Fine Arts residency, Berlin, Germany; and Ásmundarsalur, Reykjavík, Iceland.

In 2024, Elizabeth Xi Bauer presented Labyrinth, the artist’s debut solo exhibition in the UK. Select solo exhibitions of Hellberg’s work include those at HAM Helsinki Art Museum Gallery, Helsinki, 2015; Guggenheim Art Club at Kaiku, Helsinki, 2014; Didrichsen Art Museum, Helsinki, 2019; Galerie Anhava, Helsinki, 2017, 2019 and 2026; Galleri KANT, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2019, 2022 and 2026; Ásmundarsalur, Reykjavík, 2020; and Finnish Institute, St Petersburg, Russia, 2017.

Hellberg, an exhibiting artist in the recently opened group exhibition Freshly Painted at the Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland, has exhibited extensively across Europe in both solo and group exhibitions. In 2025, Hellberg’s work Night-time garden, 2023, was included in the exhibition Nordic noir: works on paper from Edvard Munch to Mamma Andersson at the British Museum, London, and subsequently acquired by the museum. Select group exhibitions include Ásmundarsalur, Reykjavik, 2023; Amos Rex, Helsinki, 2021; Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, Helsinki, 2020; Kuopio Art Museum, Kuopio, Finland, 2018; and Peckham Rye Studios, London, in 2014.

Elizabeth Xi Bauer previously presented Karoliina Hellberg’s work in the 2022 group exhibition The Cholmondeley Ladies. That same year, Hellberg was commissioned by the City of Helsinki’s Art Collection to create a public art display. Subsequently, Kallio General Upper Secondary School now houses a series of four paintings by Karoliina Hellberg, an alumna of the school. The series of paintings titled Lilacs, Anemones and Wind, is divided into two pairs located in the stairwell of the building.

In 2026, Hellberg received an honorary award from the Sigurd Frosterus Foundation. In addition, the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland awarded Hellberg the Visual Artist Award by the Marcus Collins Memorial Fund. In 2025, Hellberg received a three-year grant from the Arts Promotion Center Finland. Previously, Hellberg was the recipient of the Didrichsen Pro Arte Award (2018). Alongside receiving the award and in collaboration with the Didrichsen Art Museum, the artist published Karoliina Hellberg, a collection of essays, interviews, and a catalogue of her oeuvre. In 2019, the Didrichsen Art Museum held a solo exhibition of Hellberg’s work as part of receiving the award.

Hellberg’s works are collected in numerous public and private collections, including the British Museum’s Prints and Drawings Collection, London; Saastamoinen Foundation, Espoo, Helsinki; Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki; The Academy of Fine Arts Collection, Helsinki; Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; The Finnish Art Society, Helsinki; Didrichsen Art Museum, Helsinki; and the Vexi Salmi Collection at Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Hämeenlinna, Finland.

Hellberg created typography for Finnish rapper and poet Paperi T’s 2023 album Joka päivä jotaion katoaa. Additionally, Hellberg designed the typography for Paperi T’s posters and concert visuals. Hellberg’s artwork has also graced the cover of Anna Järvinen and Tapio Viitasaari’s 2022 album Dagen var mulen – sånger av Kaj Chydenius.

In 2022, Hellberg was commissioned to produce a painting for Café Savoy in Helsinki. Hellberg contributed to the 2020 Artek 85th Anniversary poster and created artwork for the cover of Otto Donner’s book De levande och alla de döda.

In 2017, the WSOY created a limited-edition series of 12 Finnish literary classics, with covers recreated by contemporary Finnish artists to celebrate Finland’s 100th anniversary of independence. Hellberg was commissioned to create the cover artwork of Tove Jansson’s Moominpappa at the Sea.

In 2015, Hellberg partnered with design house Samuj to create the set design and visuals for their Spring show.

Karoliina Hellberg: Here is the House will run from 4th December 2026 – 21st February 2027, at Elizabeth Xi Bauer’s Exmouth Market location, open Wednesday through Sunday, 12 – 6 pm or by appointment. A Private View will be held on 3rd December 2026, 6 – 8 pm. The gallery will be closed from 21st December 2026 – 5th January 2027, reopening on Wednesday, 6th January 2027.