Class of 2020: Ariel Helyes

Painting, Royal College of Art.

“I make works about thinking, works about my disdain for labour and works about powerlessness.
I prefer the lightest of media and the use of techniques that require little time.
But if making an artwork can’t be light and easy, then it has to be grueling.
When doing similar activities next to each other, people are connected by threads of obsession.
Any interesting art should aim to reclaim, subvert and ultimately, humanise such threads, tainted by specialisations.”

Ariel Helyes on Instagram

Degree show: moved online to https://2020.rca.ac.uk/

The RCA painting department will have a physical show at Carl Freedman Gallery which offered its space for a non-official gradshow next spring.

Ariel’s degree show included an appropriation-based spiritual video titled ‘The Healing’, available online here

Images:
1. Ariel Helyes, The Healing, 2020, digital video, 3′ 53″
2. Ariel Helyes, Coffin (five age-shifted selfies), 2020, C-type print, cardboard, 30x113x14cm.
3. Ariel Helyes, An angel told me never stop driving, 2020, coloured pencil on paper mounted on cardboard and wood, ø41cm, length 150cm.