Helga Schmidhuber has always been fascinated by the diversity of flora and fauna. As a synesthete, she works with a wide range of materials, across different media and senses. In painting, she has found the most immediate medium for translating inner and outer impressions through association.

In her works and series, she always works in layers, leaving room for chance and intuition. Found objects, memories, and immediate experiences become equally starting points for her work, which emerges during the creative process.

The installation Mothers is conceived as a work in progress and is intended to grow during the artist’s residency at CCA Andratx, which will take place throughout the month of October. Meanwhile, Wild Orchids offers an open narrative through which the artist freely and thoroughly explores the concepts and ideas of strength, resilience, and sustainability. The work is based on the artist’s past experience during a residency here in Andratx, when, following a wildfire, she discovered brightly colored orchids sprouting vigorously from the charred ashes.

Helga Schmidhuber (1972, Wiesbaden, Germany) first studied Communication Design at the Wiesbaden University of Applied Sciences and later completed her studies in Fine Arts at the Düsseldorf Art Academy under the guidance of Professors Dieter Krieg and Albert Oehlen, with whom she earned her M.A. Her works are regularly exhibited in international art galleries and museums.

Her work is characterized above all by its stylistic variety. Helga Schmidhuber draws inspiration from nature and the natural sciences. To this end, she uses everyday objects with hidden or magical connotations, as well as found objects, including bones, wood, shells, and feathers. In turn, detailed drawings overlap with gestural abstractions rendered in vivid colors; animals such as lemurs or pigs predominate alongside human figures to which feathers or other found natural
objects lend a strange appearance. All of her works exude an energetic interweaving of ideas, symbols, and emotions, pointing to a dimension that transcends reality.

Recent solo exhibitions include Chromoxid feurig Zinnoberrot, Kunstverein Kronach, 2024; Eisvogel-Elixier, Kunstverein Gütersloh, 2022; Galerie Susanne Neuerburg, Hennef, 2021; Die Stellung haltend, Zoologisches Museum, Hamburg, 2020. Recent group exhibitions include With a spicy glimpse of yellow, AOA; Galerie, Bamberg, Berlin, 2023–2024; Keine Illusionen, Kunsthalle Hamburg, 2022–2023; BIG HUGGING, CCA Andratx, Mallorca; Inner Island, Galerie Susanne Neuerburg, Hennef, 2021; Die absurde Schönheit des Raumes, Hamburger Kunsthalle, 2020. She has been awarded prestigious prizes (Markus Lüpertz Prize, Max Ernst Scholarship, Hans Platschek Prize), and participated in artist-in-residence programs in Austria, Iceland,Canada, and Spain.