Biography

Artist Statement

Helen Ryan’s paintings document a personal journey; from her birthplace in Ireland to Australia, Europe, and ultimately her chosen home – London.  Her creative practice focuses on recording and expressing what she sees, thinks, and feels as she travels and moves through life. 

Lockdown was a productive creative period moving Helen's work into abstract expressionism using shape, colour, form and gestural marks to produce images that tautly convey the tension between freedom and control. She has developed practical workshops on abstraction painting and more recently has transferred her designs onto fabrics producing scarves and quilts.

Helen regularly exhibits in London.  Her work was selected for the 2014 and 2016 ING:Discerning Eye exhibition at the Mall Galleries.  In 2012 and 2015 she was shortlisted for the New English Art Club (NEAC) exhibition at the Mall Galleries and shortlisted for the Columbia Threadneedle Prize exhibition at the Mall Gallieries in 2016.   She has appeared on the BBC2 arts programme Show me the Monet.

Helen is a member of The London Painters and Sculptors Group.  

Her work is held in private collections in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Australia, Sweden, Turkey, South Africa and USA

Solo Exhibitions:

2019        Chosen Places,  Parndon Mill Gallery, Essex

2014        Day Morris,  Highgate, London

2014        Art on the High Street, Anthony Webb, London

2007/08   Burgh House, Hampstead, London

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2022    Colour & Form '22, Collective Gallery, St Albans, Herts

2019    Colour & Form '19, Camden Image Gallery, London

2018    Colour & Form '18, Camden Image Gallery, London

2018    Mixed Media Exhibition, Candid Arts Trust,  London

2018    Art Fair, Origin Gallery, Dublin

2017    Colour & Form, Strand Gallery, London

2016    ING: Discerning Eye,  Mall Galleries, The Mall, London

2016    Highgate Gallery, Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution, London

2015    North London Artist Network (NLAN), Strand Gallery, London

2015    Place & Space, Espacio Gallery, London

2014    ING: Discerning Eye,  Mall Galleries, The Mall, London

2014    NLAN (North London Artist Network),  Camden Image Gallery, North London

2014    London Places Open Spaces,  Crypt Gallery, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London

2014    City Life & Urban Themes, Taproom, Islington, London

2013    Artists @ the Crypt:  The Gallery in the Crypt,  Trafalgar Square, London     

2013    Space Gallery, North London

2013    Highgate Gallery, Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution,  London     

2012    Insight School of Art, North London

2012    Cork Street Open Exhibition, Mayfair, London 

2012    17 @ ArtVanGo, Knebworth, Herts, UK

2011    17@ Insight, Insight Art, North London

2011    Ayot St. Lawrence Annual Art Exhibition, UK

2010   Ayot St. Lawrence Annual Art exhibition, UK

2009   Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution, Highgate, London

Shortlistings:

2015    Columbia Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries exhibition, London for 2016

2015    New English Art Club (NEAC) Mall Galleries exhibition, London

2012    New English Art Club (NEAC) Mall Galleries exhibition, London

Commissions:

Private commissions have included a wide range of sizes, subjects and scope.

Residencies:   

September 2022    Cill Rialaig Artist Retreat - Kingdom of Kerry, Ireland

Media:

2012   BBC2 arts programme Show Me the Monet series 2