Mercedes Helnweins Spuren des „American Way of Life“ auf den Bleiburger Fassaden künden von der kommenden Ausstellung im Werner Berg Museum
Im Werner Berg Museum in Bleiburg wird ab 8. Mai 2026 eine bedeutende Ausstellung mit Werken von Mercedes Helnwein, Werner Berg und Alberto Giacometti gezeigt #
Mercedes Helnwein (Foto Harald Scheicher) lebt und arbeitet primär in Los Angeles und Irland. Der Bezug zu Amerika ist das zentrale Thema ihrer Kunst. Ihre faszinierenden Bilder sind nun bereits auf Häuserfassaden in Bleiburg zu sehen.
Die Fassadengestaltung in Bleiburg
Die Verbindung zwischen dem Namen Helnwein und der Fassadengestaltung in Bleiburg ist eine lokale Tradition:
Gottfried Helnwein, der Vater von Mercedes, gestaltete in der Vergangenheit bereits die Fassaden des Museums und weiterer Häuser. (Wir erinnern uns an seine großformatigen, teils provokanten Porträts).
Im Rahmen der kommenden Schau „Das Ausloten von Mikrokosmen„, in der Mercedes Helnwein gemeinsam mit Alberto Giacometti und Werner Berg ausgestellt wird, rückt ihr Werk nun ins Zentrum der Aufmerksamkeit in Bleiburg.
https://www.wernerberg.museum/
Ausstellungeröffnung
07. Mai 2026, 19 Uhr
Zur Ausstellung sprechen:
Gottfried Helnwein, Harald Scheicher
Musik: The Talltones
“A writer as well as visual artist, Mercedes Helnwein does not so much tell stories or even capture moments in her drawings as she triggers possibilities—the possibilities being vaguely unlikely, vaguely unsavory, and not-so-vaguely menacing, rather like inverse Magrittes. Helnwein’s basic ingredient is the fully, fashionably, clothed human figure, more often than not regarding the viewer or about to; occupying a peculiarly lit, but familiar space, they are shown engaged in a solipsistic soliloquy— self-absorbed and drenched in an almost urgent ennui—with someone and/or something else. The something else is never a weapon, and the someone else never seems to be a love interest or BFF, so the narrative tension keeps to a simmer. But that tension is the more pervasive for its very indirection and indefinability…”
-Peter Frank for Art Ltd
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Motive: Sie nutzt oft Fotografien aus den 1960er und 70er Jahren (Flohmarktfunde) als Vorlage für ihre Ölstift-Zeichnungen und Gemälde.
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Themen: Ihre Werke thematisieren häufig das US-Vorstadtleben (Suburban Life), Adoleszenz und die „Spuren des American Way of Life“.
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Stil: Ihre Arbeiten, wie etwa die Serie Chaos Theory, fangen eine spezifische amerikanische Melancholie und subtile Unruhe ein.
In der Ausstellung im Werner Berg Museum werden diese „amerikanischen Mikrokosmen“ den ländlichen Welten von Werner Berg gegenübergestellt.
Aus der für einen Teilaspekt der USA so charakteristischen Welt rund um die Highschool der 1950 und 1960er Jahre und des „amerikanischen Wohnzimmers“ stammt eine Vielzahl der Motive von Mercedes Helnwein (*1979). Exemplarisch schildert sie Begegnungen von Menschengruppen in Bildern von Vorstadtstraßen, Schwesternzimmern der Krankenhäuser, von Abschlussbällen, Hallowenfeiern oder Hochzeiten – mit stetem Gespür für das Besondere. Der unheimliche Unterton in unscheinbaren alltäglichen Begebenheiten verleiht ihren Werken eine geheimnisvolle Tiefe.
Mercedes Helnwein was born in Vienna, Austria (1979), daughter to Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein.
She moved to Ireland with her family in her teens. Helnwein is self taught. With no interest in attending art schools, she instead drew her inspiration from personal influences ranging from Southern Gothic traditions to the cartoons of Robert Crumb, nineteenth Century literature, American motel culture and the Delta blues, amongst others.
In 2000, Helnwein moved to Los Angeles and began to exhibit her drawings publicly. Her early art shows were self-instigated, one-night events often with one or two other inexperienced artists. Between 2008 and 2013 Helnwein exhibited regularly at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Los Angeles.
mercedeshelnwein.com
With her series Asleep in the Wind (2011) Helnwein broke from the primarily pencil-focused style of her early work and moved onto large-scale formats, eventually adopting oil pastel as her dominant medium. Her work has spanned various themes over the years, but it is united in its exploration of the normalcy of every-day life through a filter of dubiety. Helnwein has said: “I love mundane moments because I don’t believe that anything is ever normal. When I play with a scene, the idea is to let myself see the undercurrents of the rat’s nest that’s propping up the familiar. ” Although men have played a crucial part in many of her works, the emphasis is always heavy on the female aspect of the story. Populated by prom queens, bridesmaids, witches, nurses and girl gangs Helnwein gives her female protagonists the freedom to be both the heroine and the antiheroine, often letting the lines blur inexorably.
mercedeshelnwein.com
Autobiographical
I love fiction. Getting to make up stuff without having to cater to fact is the best. Even when I do self-portraits they are for the most part tales of fiction. I love being the outsider to the stories in my artwork and getting to ask the same questions any viewer might. That being said, I think every artist’s work is at least somewhat autobiographical by nature.
For my novel Slingshot, however, I did draw heavily on own experiences as a teenager. The story remains fiction, but the only way it was going to feel authentic was for me to really embed myself back into the mental landscape of 16-year-old me. And that was the whole point: to write a brutally honest remembrance of falling in love for the first time. So it’s the most autobiographical thing I’ve done and at the same time totally fictitious. (mercedeshelnwein.com)
Art versus Writing
As a kid I drew, made films and wrote stories. So, none of these things are something new that I’m suddenly doing as an adult. I always found it easier to focus on a bunch of stuff artistically rather than just one thing because there’s a lot of cross-inspiration that goes on. One thing generates ideas for something else, and different channels of artistic expression are better suited for different ideas. When I get stuck in one project, I can switch to the other. The only times I feel lost is when I’m not actively getting something done. It’s the worst feeling for me, and so I set things up to make sure that I always have a writing project going besides my studio work. There is also something about the back and forth between the explicit nature of dealing with words, and then switching to a completely visual creative outlet. (mercedeshelnwein.com)
Gottfried Helnwein
It was never my dream to follow in my dad’s footsteps and become a visual artist professionally. I wanted to be a writer. But I was always drawing non-stop and addicted to it for as long as I can remember. After I moved to LA I ended up doing art shows with friends and selling work and being able to pay rent and buy food that way. I would have been doing art regardless of whatever else I might have ended up doing in an alternate reality, but the reason I fell into it as a career was because initially it enabled me to survive. And then, yeah, it became a bigger and bigger necessity to me in terms of keeping my sanity. I can’t imagine not doing this professionally anymore. (mercedeshelnwein.com)
I don’t talk to my dad at length about my work. He doesn’t give me critiques or opinions. I really appreciate that about him, because he gives you full leeway to be who you are as an artist. We talk a lot about art in general though. Other artists, music, writers, old architecture, and so on. Those are really inspiring conversations to me and have far more profound effects on me than someone actually trying to discuss the details of my own work. My dad’s viewpoints are incredibly broad and fascinating. I’m always surprised at how he sees art. And that’s why going through a museum with him is a very different experience for me than going by myself. I get so much more out of it with him. (mercedeshelnwein.com)
Besuchen Sie die Künstlerin für weitere Einblicke auf ihrer offiziellen Website mercedeshelnwein.com.
Ausstellungeröffnung
07. Mai 2026, 19 Uhr
Zur Ausstellung sprechen:
Gottfried Helnwein, Harald Scheicher
Musik: The Talltones
Öffnungszeiten
08. Mai – 08. November 2026
Di-So: 10-18 h
Feiertags geöffnet
Führungen gegen Voranmeldung
https://www.wernerberg.museum/
