Helena Petersen (*1987, Munich) lives and works in Munich.
 
Helena Petersen works primarily with the medium of photography. She develops performative, camera-less methods in which materiality, time, and chance actively shape the making of the image. Her work focuses on natural phenomena and materials in which events and processes of transformation have left their mark. She explores these through experimental photographic techniques, making visible fleeting changes that elude immediate perception. The resulting series of images move between documentary observation and abstraction. She traces the transience, deeply rooted in question of what is, and what remains present.
 
 
 
EDUCATION
 
 
2008 – 2013 Universität der Künste Berlin (Berlin University of the Arts), Germany
 
Absolvent 2011 (BFA) and Meisterschüler 2013, Hons (MFA) with Prof. Leiko Ikemura
 
2007 – 2008 Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam, Netherlands
 
 
 
AWARDS / GRANTS
 
 
Nominated for Förderpreis für Fotografie der Landeshauptstadt München 2026
 
Nominated for Stiftungspreis Fotokunst 2023, KUNSTWERK Sammlung Klein
 
Nominated for Prix Pictet 2021 for series Pyrographie with the year’s theme ‚Fire‘
 
Artist-in-Residence of Belvedere 21, Museum of Contemporary Art, Vienna
 
Artist-in-Residence by Artward 2015, Brussels
 
Nominated for Preis der Nationalgalerie für Junge Kunst 2015 (longlist)
 
Award Meisterschülerpreis, MFA Graduate Award Universität der Künste Berlin (catalogue)
 
Grant Eberhard-Roters-Stipendium für Junge Kunst 2012, Berlinische Galerie (one year grant)
 
Nominated for Preis der Nationalgalerie für Junge Kunst 2013 (longlist)
 
Award IBB- Preis für Photographie 2011, Investitionsbank Berlin (catalogue)
 
Award Photo Vision 2009 
 
 
 
SHOWS / PRESENTATIONS
 
 
2025  Return to the Earth, Bobs Galleria, Santa Fe, New Mexico
 
2024  We are Water, Klima Biennale Wien, Foto Arsenal Wien
 
23/24 Stiftungspreis Fotokunst 2023, KUNSTWERK Sammlung Klein, Nussdorf (catalogue)
 
2023  Erde. Verwobenes Leben, Kunststiftung DZ Bank, Frankfurt (publication)
 
2023  Himmel. Die Entdeckung der Weltordnung, Kunststiftung DZ Bank, Frankfurt (publication)
 
21/22 Analog Total – Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Leipzig (catalogue)
 
20/21 WIN WIN – Synergien in der Kunst, Kunststiftung DZ Bank, Frankfurt am Main (publication)
 
2020  Future Forms and Fiction, Schau Fenster, Berlin
 
2019  Thoughts on Tactility, Galerie Schwarz Contemporary, Berlin
 
2018  Back to the Future, part of European Month of Photography, C/O BERLIN, Berlin
 
2018  The Presence of Absence (Presentation), Conference Cities on Volcanoes 10, Naples, Italy
 
2018  Offbeat – from the Class of Leiko Ikemura, Schau Fenster, Berlin
 
2018  Das Ephemere in der Photographie, Alfred-Erhard-Stiftung, Berlin
 
2018  Malevolent Eldritch Shrieking, Attercliffe, Sheffield, Great Britain
 
2017  Plat(t)form 2017 (Presentation), Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland
 
2017  Bewegung im Bild, Märkisches Museum, Witten (publication)
 
2017  Bewegung im Bild, Art Foundation DZ Bank, Frankfurt am Main (publication)
 
2017  Wir Magier – Class of Leiko Ikemura, Galerie Evelyn Drewes, Hamburg
 
2016  Foto Friday, Indechs by Salon Kennedy, Frankfurt am Main
 
2016  Back to the Future in Photography, Kunststiftung DZ Bank, Frankfurt am Main
 
2016  Photo Art Volume I, Offspace Palm, Berlin
 
2015  Kósmos, Offspace Knust & Kunz by Galerie Sabine Knust, Munich (solo)
 
2015  Ten of Cups – 10 years Baumwollspinnerei, Gelerie Reiter, Leipzig
 
2014  Helena Petersen – Pyrographie, Galerie Reiter, Spinnerei f/stop Fotofestival, Leipzig (solo)
 
2014  PIN. Auktion 2014, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
 
2014  XXVI, Wiensowski & Harbord, Berlin
 
2014  Ausgezeichnet, Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin
 
2013  Helena Petersen, Galerie Wendt + Friedmann, Berlin (solo)
 
2013  Meisterschülerpreis, MFA Award, Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin (catalogue)
 
2013  Berlin Masters 2013, Galerie Arndt, Berlin (catalogue)
 
2013  Meisterschüler Exhibition (MFA), Universität der Künste, Berlin
 
2012  Eberhard-Roters-Stipendium für Junge Kunst, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (solo)
 
2012  キ KI – das immaterielle der Dinge, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin
 
2012  Gute Karten, Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin
 
2011  IBB – Preis für Photographie, Atrium Investitionsbank, Berlin (catalogue)
 
2011  Absolvent Exhibition (BFA), Universität der Künste, Berlin
 
2011  Veilchen, Uferhallen, Berlin
 
2010  Brilliant Volume, Universität der Künste, Berlin
 
2010  This is red, Klasse Leiko Ikemura at Halle Zehn, CAP, Cologne (catalogue)