Nina Hellman
Medium: Multi-Disciplinary

Studio Location:
755 West End Ave., apt 12B - Studio# 12B

Phone: 9177568264

Email: ninahelman@aol.com

Website:: www.ninahelman.com

Artist Bio:
Nina Hellman is a native New Yorker, exposed from childhood to the rich variety of creative experience the city has to offer. As a young person her primary focus was theatre, although she also maintained a strong interest in visual arts , and in making things. She graduated New York's famed High School of Performing Arts, and acted in a number of plays and participated in experimental theatre in the 1960's. In 1969 she set sail for Morocco, and eventually settled in Denmark for four years. It was there that she met an Australian silversmith and partnering with him and several other young artists to open a gallery called "Jewelry Alan." Returning to New York in 1975, she continued jewelry making, exhibiting and selling under the name Nina Andersen, and joining with other artist / craft persons to found a gallery in New York's Greenwich Village, called "9 Artisans." Jewelry provided a surprising entry point for new directions when in 1978 Nina was awarded a CETA Artist Grant ultimately leading to a job teaching jewelry making and providing counseling at a multi-service youth agency. It was there that her parallel profession as an Art Therapist and finally as a Psychotherapist evolved. It was also during this period that she began painting and decided to enter a BFA program at The School of Visual Arts. A period of many years of full time employment in hospital settings as an Art Therapist/Group Therapist pushed art making to a secondary position, although she did manage to have three solo exhibits, two at Ceres Gallery and one at Vis a Vis, St Clements, as well as participating in a number of group shows. Fast forward to present days. Nina Hellman has retired from full time hospital work to start a Private Psychotherapy Practice, and spends as much time as possible painting and sculpting with renewed inspiration.

In addition to being an artist, Nina Hellman is a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist/Art Therapist. and Psychotherapist in private practice. She has engaged in both these activities for over thirty years. They interact, sometimes compete, often cross fertalize. The human experience, aspects of character, the inner inner life, these are domains of both art & psychology.

Education:

??? High School of Performing Arts, New York, NY, Drama Major

??? B.F.A., School of Visual Arts, NY,

??? M.A. Art Therapy, New York University

??? Art Students League, NY

Studied with Paul Ching Bor, Barney Hodes Will Barnett and others.

Travels: Nina Hellman traveled widely throughout Europe & North Africa, spending significant time in Morocco, Spain, France & Italy , & lived in Copenhagen Denmark for four years.

??? Life intervened in a big way in ensuing years, and although I have continued to work consistantly in both painting and sculpture, I have not actively persued promoting and exhibiting my work. Until now

Selected Exhibits:

2018- LIC Arts Open "Falling Forward" Group Exhibition, September 9, 2018-November 2, 2018

2018-" Waterfront" - Manhattan Borough Presidents Office, July 3 - September 5, 2018

2018- WSAC, Salon Show, June 20 - July 8, 2018


2018-" Signature Work", April 4 - 22

2018- "Black Renaissance 2018", Feb.21 - Mar.11

2018- " Start The Year With Art", jan. 10 - 28.

2017- Boriqua College Gallery, " Visual Chorus"' " A Fine Arts Exhibit", Nov.7 - Dec.1

2017- West Side Arts Coalition, "Mosaic of Color " group exhibition, September 13 - October 1,

2009-2017, Art Students League Concourse Yearly Exhibitions

1996 Art Students League Student Concourse Exhibit, Red Dot Winner

1996 "Dialogues", Solo Show, Vis A Vis Gallery, St Clements, New York, NY

1991 Group Show, "Hot Flashes, Cycles of Women's Lives", Ceres Gallery, New York, NY ??? 1992, "Even as We Sleep", Solo Show, Ceres Gallery ???

1991 Group Show, " Women in the Arts", Pori Authority, World Trade Center, New York, NY ???

1991 Ceres Group Showat Krasdale Gallery, New York, NY ???

1989 Solo Exhibit of paintings, Ceres Gallery, New York, NY ???

Exhibited original hand crafted jewelery in Clostergaard, Jewelry Alan, & Den Permanente, galleries in Copenhagen Denmark, 1970 -1974 Jewelry exhibited in New York in Ballardo Ltd, Nemesis II, Beautiful Things, & in Galleria Maray in New Jersey , and in numerous other venues. ???

Artist Statement:
This website is my public home space. It displays examples of the currents that flow through my work. For me, it is a way to keep track of myself and my evolution over time. It is also a way for me to share my work with you. I am an Artist, Art Therapist, Psychotherapist, very occasionally, an Actor. I am interested in the intersection of these things.

Things that inspire me:

People, places, events, real and imagined

Reverie, Personal history, memories and free associations and spontaneous flow

Dreams and dream space

Fiction and fairy tales, mythology, symbology, psychology,

Drama, dance, cinema, television, the close up

Faces and how character is revealed through the face Empathy

Loss and restitution

Homage paying

Juxtapositions

The power of nature

light and dark

Animals

Color

Hand made things

Toys Folk art

Many other artists, historic and contemporary




All images and text copyright Nina Hellman