Helen Kohl (b. 1994 in Bad Kreuznach) currently lives and works in Düsseldorf. Alongside her studio practice, she works as an arts and performing arts teacher. Kohl holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Oxford Brookes University and a technical certificate in glass from Morley College in London. Prior to her artistic training, she completed a state examination in teaching with a major in biology at Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg.The artist's transdisciplinary practice moves fluidly between sculpture, installation, and performance. Her work centers on the softness of memory and how one's identity forms and gets reshaped through times, spaces, and encounters.‘My work often begins with quiet observation: of bodies, of spaces, of the way memories linger. From there, it moves through reflection and becomes form: sometimes still, sometimes in motion, often somewhere in between. I’m drawn to the moments where things blur; where the lines between self and other, inside and outside, memory and present, aren’t quite fixed.I’m interested in how we become who we are. How experiences, relationships, time, and places layer themselves into us. Identity, for me, isn’t stable or singular; it’s porous, always shifting, shaped by the people we meet, the spaces we inhabit, and the stories we carry within us.Recurring forms and motifs like holding vessels, receiving funnels, sensory organs, and images of gestures and memories echo this idea of the porous self. The materials are chosen for their ability to speak this language of fragility, permeability, and transformation: soft wood, glass, malleable wax, skin-like rubber, porcelain, liquids, semi-transparent fabrics, and the body itself. I’m drawn to what is layered, translucent, unstable: things that ask to be looked at slowlyThrough my practice, I try to create a space that invites reflection—not just on what we see, but on how we feel, remember, and connect. In that space of looking and sensing, I hope something shared can unfold.’CV
b. Bad Kreuznach, Germany. Lives and works between Oxford, UK and Düsseldorf, Germany.education
2024
BTEC Certificate in Art and Design, Level 3 - Glass | Morley College, London (UK)2023
BA (Hons) - Fine Art | Oxford Brookes University, Oxford (UK)2020
State Examination in Primary School Education | Julius-Maximilians University, Würzburg (GER) BA (Hons) - Cultural Basic Skills | Julius-Maximilians University, Würzburg (GER) work
2025 until now
Art and Perfomative Arts teacher | Werner-von-Siemens-Gesamtschule, Königsborn (GER)awards | grants | residencies
2024
Sound Diaries | Open Call 2023-242023
OVADA Gallery | Summer Residency 2023The Platform Graduate Award 2023 | Exhibiting ArtistThe John Henry Brookes Price 2023 | Award for the most outstanding achievement in the Fine Art Major Projectsolo shows
2023
The Platform Graduate Award | Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (UK)selected group shows
2026
Maximalismus | Interim Museum, Düsseldorf (GER)ArtArtist 2026 | Interim Museum, Düsseldorf (GER)2024
eye and hand | Morley Gallery, London (UK)Sound Diaries | Oxford Brookes University, Oxford (UK)Between Nothing and Not a Thing | Zephyr Gallery, Oxford (UK)2023
Fruits of a Summer Harvest | OVADA Gallery, Oxford (UK)Metanoia | The Glass Tank, Oxford (UK)interview
Published in conjunction with Helen Kohl’s solo exhibition at Modern Art Oxford as part of the CVAN Platform Graduate Award 2023contact me.
helenkohl@gmx.co.uk