“Within the chaos of too much, I seek the minimal—an essential mark, texture, or color that holds the weight of the whole”
About Helena
Helena Palazzi is a visual multidisciplinary artist based in Kingston, NY. Born in Sweden in 1968, she discovered visual storytelling as a teenager through photography, carrying a secondhand analog camera everywhere she went, and spending countless hours in a garage-turned-darkroom.
In 1993, Helena's path led her to Italy, her father's homeland, where she enrolled at the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts Pietro Vanucci , in the region of Umbria, and co-founded a photography and art studio alongside a group of talented young creatives. Soon after, she began exhibiting photography, paintings, and mixed-media works, marking the start of her path as an exhibiting artist.
In 1998, Helena relocated to New York City, where she pursued fashion and commercial photography- collaborating with clients and creatives worldwide for over two decades. During the pandemic she shifted her focus back to fine art and established her studio, Art by Helena Palazzi, in Kingston, NY. Helena exhibits her work in solo and group shows throughout the Hudson Valley, New York State and beyond.
Helena Palazzi’s paintings often balance fluidity with structure, combining translucent washes of color with fine linear marks and subtle textures. Her work carries a sense of atmosphere- at times meditative, at times charged- where layers of pigment and ink overlap to create depth and movement. Organic forms emerge and dissolve within the composition, while delicate lines introduce a quiet tension, suggesting both order and fragility. The palette tends to be restrained yet luminous, occasionally punctuated by small, unexpected bursts of brightness. Altogether, the paintings evoke the feeling of something suspended between chaos and clarity.
Helena’s life and art are shaped by her Swedish/ Italian roots, her years in NYC and present living in Upstate New York. Each chapter leaving its mark on her perspective and her practice.
Artist Statement
My work unfolds through cycles of thinking, observing, and making. Each painting begins long before I touch the canvas. I picture shapes, gestures, and mull over ideas in my mind first, letting them settle until they feel ready to emerge. This internal sketching helps me understand the balance and rhythm I’m seeking.
In the studio, I look for movement and instinct. I want my gestures to feel free rather than controlled, allowing the painting to shift as I respond to what’s unfolding. As forms begin to take shape, I start refining; paring back, editing, and stripping away until only what feels essential remains. It’s always a negotiation between chaos and clarity, intuition and intention. Within the chaos of too much, I seek the minimal, an essential mark, texture, or color that holds the weight of the whole.
A core part of my practice is the desire to create quiet, introspective spaces in a world that often feels loud and quick-moving. I’m drawn to subtle changes in tone, soft edges, and delicate textures- elements that allow stillness to surface. My work is less about depicting something external and more about shaping environments that hold space for calm, reflection, and internal clarity. I’m interested in the in-between moments where thoughts and emotions shift quietly.
My process moves in natural waves: periods of deep focus followed by moments of stepping back to reflect and reset. This rhythm is essential and creates room for new ideas to form and for the work to grow at its own pace..
I work within the tension of building and erasing, adding and refining, always searching for clarity within complexity. My aim is not perfection but presence. It’s a kind of balance that holds both movement and stillness. Nothing feels final. Each painting is a moment within an ongoing dialogue between gesture and thought, my memories and emotions, the seen and the felt.