Helga Cmelka

Helga Cmelka
(born 1952 in Mödling, Lower Austria)

Aquarius, 2018,  for the edition women II  by art in print

Screen print in 6 colours on Fabriano white cotton 350 g, printed by Robert Svoboda, art&print, Vienna

Edition of 33 + 5 AP + 2 EP + 1 PP

Signed, dated, titled and numbered by the artist

40 x 50 cm

Helga Cmelka

1952 // born in Mödling // lives and works in Lower Austria and Vienna.

Member of the Vienna Künstlerhaus since 1990; has been running the kunstraumarcade in Mödling together with colleagues for 1994.

Exhbitions national and abroad

2007 // Invitation as Artist in Residence and Visiting Lecturer at the RMIT University, School

of Art, Printmaking Department, Melbourne, AUS

2009 // Gastatelier „Maltator“, Gmünd, Kärnten

2012 // „Artist in Residence“, ÖKKV Kulturfabriken Örnsköldsvik/S

“In all of my works, there is a front, a back and an in-between – layer after layer. In the drawings, in the sculptures made out of knotted wires and especially in the graphic prints. I’ve been dealing extensively with graphics for over 30 years, and with screen printing in particular over the last few years, as I’ve found the best way of combining my different works and techniques and applying them graphically.

Webs in a huge variety of textures, thicknesses and structures play a big part in my work. The properties of the material help to determine the working process, so the mechanical product is linked with the artist’s own craftsmanship. For the screen print, I also use textile material and stitch – the needle replaces the pen.

My sculptures are knotted out of wire, interwoven partly with feathers, yarn or woven material. They are reminiscent of nests, husks, insects and larvae. These sculptures often also feature in printed form in screen prints – interlinked, interwoven and intertwined.”

Helga Cmelka, 2018

About the artist

[…] Although the artist establishes a close relationship with the materials she works with, it’s not the material on its own that stands out. It’s increasingly about structure, layering, sequencing, lines and transparency. If the material found now carries those properties that are suitable for the implementation of Helga Cmelka’s ideas, it is selected and explored to the very depths of its power of representation […]

Sonja Traar