Barbara Karen Helbo

I am a Danish artist drawn to the many ways we experience the world.

My paintings move between two contrasting forms of expression: quiet animal portraits, inviting a slower, more contemplative gaze, and vivid, expressive works exploring the oddities and complexities of being human.

The latter grew from a deeply personal place. After my father died in 2025, I began making work shaped by my reflections on his life with paranoid schizophrenia—and on the fragile, often mysterious ways we perceive ourselves and one another. It is not an attempt to explain his experience, but a way of continuing to look, question and make meaning.

I am also developing a way for viewers to scan selected works with their phones, opening up an additional encounter with the painting. For me, the image can be both a place to pause and a starting point for looking closer.