Richard Helbin was born in Katowice (Poland) in 1980. From 2002 to 2007, he studied graphic design at Münster University of Applied Sciences. From 2003 to 2012, he worked as a freelancer in the printmaking studio of the Mike Karstens in Münster. In 2008/2009, he studied at the Münster Academy of Fine Arts under Daniele Buetti and, from 2010 to 2012, at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts under Siegfried Anzinger, where he graduated as a master student in 2012. Since 2012, he has been a lecturer in printmaking and graphic design at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts. From 2012 to 2021, he also held a teaching post in printmaking and drawing at Philipps University of Marburg. He lives and works in Düsseldorf.

In his work, Richard Helbin focuses, among other things, on reviving traditional textile techniques such as bobbin lace-making, embroidery, weaving and crochet, which once shaped entire towns and regions but have now lost all economic significance. He transforms these crafts into a contemporary context, for example by casting crocheted sculptures in bronze or creating meticulously bobbin-laced miniatures. The result is works of art that go far beyond mere craftsmanship: through his individual iconography and deliberate play with contextual meanings, they become socially critical artworks.

In his exhibition “Oh boy, oh boy!”, Helbin interweaves these traditional techniques with emotionally charged, queer images of longing, thereby evoking values and ideas that oscillate between nostalgia and social relevance. His works connect past and present, craftsmanship and concept, sensuality and critical reflection in a multi-layered way.

From the text accompanying the exhibition And I loved the way you looked at me. at the Kunstverein Lippstadt
Kathrin Heyer and Erich Franz, 2025

“With the utmost sophistication, Richard Helbin’s works resist conventional perception: they prevent us from recognising them immediately. At first glance, we might identify a landscape, a figure, a face, or some writing. Yet what we think we recognise does not present itself clearly. Fleeting, imprecisely drawn lines merely hint at it, deviate from the object, forming their own pattern. Even a few features are enough to make us believe we recognise a head in an oval, three-dimensional form.

Richard Helbin transforms such fleeting and merely suggestive representations into something new and entirely different: in a second stage of the process, he re-creates them. From these fleeting models, he creates hand-embroidered cloths (sometimes using beadwork), knitted pieces and bobbin-laced structures (composed of interwoven threads). In the case of woven reproductions (tapestries), he incorporates digital and mechanical textile processing techniques, which he controls precisely. Some works go a step further still – for instance, when a knitted reproduction is cast in bronze.

These handcrafted, tangible pieces possess, in themselves, a powerful material and sensory presence. At the same time, they still convey the drawing (or the sculpture) and also its motif (landscape, figure, face, writing). They do not depict it directly, but merely hint at it – alongside their own, entirely different presence. Yet their preciousness, their meticulousness, slowness and tangible sensuality always also encompass the fleeting, the distant, the vaguely recognised and the merely surmised.

The technique lends the works a distinctive sense of temporality. What initially appears rough and indistinct is the result of a long, focused process. Threads, beads and textures combine to form a sensuous surface. Emotions, memories and social issues – particularly the exploration of homosexuality – resonate throughout. In doing so, they shed all traces of cliché and the burden of prejudice. Instead, a poetic, intense and atmospheric visual language emerges.

[…]”