Melee is a word of collision and closeness. A moment of combat, when distinctions blur - bodies, gestures, colors, and intentions press into one another without a clear hierarchy. In a melee, there is no single point of focus. Meaning emerges from density, friction, and movement.
Sebastian Helling's work lives in a special place in my heart. It just speaks to me. I understand it. When I look at his paintings, I feel like he just gets it. And I get it. For me it’s like going to a planet full of alien life and somehow, I know the language. As if it was always there and I didn’t know it.
QB Gallery
“A Song of the Swampy Woodland” - Sebastian Helling
His signature instinct speaks to me. It's the choices he makes, what he decides to do and not to do, and when to stop. I think the most important instinct an artist can have is when to stop, to know when the work is finished. Layers that work forward and not backwards.
I like to feel the materials. I want to be transfixed on something that looks like a brush mark, but not quite, and asking myself: how did he do that? I'm obsessed with the process, and I want to see it on full display. I want to see the mark making, the layers, the adding and subtracting. I want to see the process in the work of art and not be sure exactly what that process was. Clues but not answers.
I think every artist wants to create their own world. Few do. Fewer still create a world others want to live in. Helling’s work does both. It operates on two levels: one where questions are given fuel to seek answers, and another: a realm of sublime beauty where the chaos and collisions of life itself explode into meaning.
Helling’s process and material choices balance grit and refinement. There's something intuitive there, something unspoken, but understood. He references art history without being too heavily influenced by it. His work manages to hold its own in a world full of great art. His paintings tell a story, and the viewer gets to decide on what adventure to take.
Helling's work wakes a part of my brain that I wasn't even aware existed.
- Caleb Mahoney
Sebastian Helling
Sebastian Helling (f. 1975, London) er utdannet ved Kunstakademiet i Oslo (MA, 2011), Royal College of Art i London (MA, 2003) og London College of Printing (BA, 2001).
Kunstnerskapet til Helling har en enorm kraft i komposisjon, farge og forståelse for maleriet. Maleriene består delvis av tradisjonelle "strøk", spraymalte elementer, tekst, collage, utviskninger og merker påført direkte med hånden. I mellomrommet mellom disse måtene å behandle lerretets overflate oppstår et dirrende spenningsfelt av malerisk mening, en kontinuerlig prosess av oppløsning og gjenoppbygging. Arbeidene hans er verken abstrakte eller figurative; strøkene hans overlapper og kolliderer i en musikalsk og kunstnerisk dans hvor han skaper et ladet visuelt åpent for tolkning. Slik all god malerisk ekspressivitet gjør, så er kunstneren fullstendig til stede i maleriene, for er det noe disse maleriene definitivt viser tilbake til, så er det i høyeste grad Helling selv.
Helling anerkjennes som en viktig stemme på både den nasjonale og internasjonale kunstscenen, og verkene hans er innkjøpt av betydningsfulle institusjoner og private samlere verden over.
ABOUT QB GALLERY
QB Gallery was founded in 2014 and is an Oslo-based gallery for Norwegian and Scandinavian contemporary art, representing both emerging and established artists.
The gallery works with a broad range of practices, whilst following a non-hierarchical approach towards several scenes and artistic backgrounds.
Tactility, materiality and the importance of presence and awareness are aspects highlighted through the curation and communication of our gallery program, qualities we consider particularly important in rapidly changing digital times.
Led by curiosity and a desire to bring together various actors in the artworld, we focus on long time goals with playful approaches, choosing to combine the long-established standards of the art world with contemporary ideas.
The gallery is run by Mikaela Bruhn Aschim and Kari Kjøsnes.
CONTACT
Address: Gabels Gate 43, 0262 Oslo
Telephone: 993 65 233
Web: qbg.no
Email: post@qbg.no