Hanna Hellsten

Born in Stockholm, Sweden, the first photograph taken of me was by the Swedish tabloids. It was of me as a new-born baby with my parents in a hospital. At age three we moved to Los Angeles, California, where we lived for twenty-five years. My interest in the medium of video and issues surrounding identity and mimicry, I think, was ignited by the experience of having a mother that had been a TV star in Sweden (note: Margareta S portrayed the "Partaj Broad" on the Swedish variety show "Partaj" from the '60's - a take-off from the American show "Laugh-In" starring Goldie Hawn) as well as growing up with the film industry and its children next door. My painting is partly influenced by the consistent shifting of surrounding landscape throughout the years.

Winters were spent in sunny Malibu, California with its magnificent mountains and vast and glittering Pacific Ocean - both seeming to go on into eternity. Disturbing rumors about rampant serial killers feuled many scary nights with hallucinatory visions and nightmares. Charles Manson had even set up shack on the property we moved onto! And just a drive along the breezy Pacific Coast Highway was LA where the sun got harder as it hit concrete and the mesh of freeways.

Summers on th...

Artist-in-residence Invitational, eight months, Le Fresnoy post-graduate film school, Tourcoing, France (wrote, directed and performed with collaborator Alexis Hall on feature-length Digibeta film “You Look Better Still…”)
Master of Fine Art in Film/Video and Painting, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California, USA
Bachelor of Fine Art in Studio Art and English Literature, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California, USA; Banias, Israel; London, England and Florence, Italy
Printmaking (etching, silkscreen and lithography) and Photography, Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, California, USA
Master Classes in Painting, Keith Finch, Los Angeles, California, USA

selected solo exhibitions/performance/installations

Plastic Oceans, Plastic Storm, paintings, video projection installation, sculptures, Passagen, Linköpings Art Gallery, chief curator Lars-Ove Östensson, Linköping, Sweden
USA/Sverige, mor och dotter, paintings, masks, sculptures and video projection installation, curator Charlotte Gyllner of Tyresö Art Gallery and Ebba Stridh of Tyresö Art Organization, Tyresö Art Gallery, Sweden
Queen Bee, paintings and video installation, Münchensalen, Münchenbryggeriet, Stockholm
Kerstin, bride, painting installation, Nada Bar, curated by Jakob Landelius and Josefina H of Bazoueira, Stockholm
video installation, Köket, Escapade Club, curator Ebba Setterblad of Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm
Gränser: The Transformer, 3 rooms: paintings, video projection installation and sculpture installation, Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm
my mom, poster installation on streets of Stockholm
Ssshhh…mamma sover! video, sound and sculpture installation, Robert Almströmsgatan 9 (private showing), Stockholm
Tyst! Mormor vaknar! video, sound and sculpture installation, Hjortronvägen 20 (private showing), Tyresö
Min Dotter/Min Syster, C3L Centrum för Livslångt Lärande, Tyresö
Margareta Sjödin/ in my mo...