biography

Helen Mirra was born in 1970 in Rochester, New York.
She lives and works in West Marin, California.

Mirra’s practice has consistently been formally minimal, using simple materials while engaged with maximal ideas about perception and participation as a person on this particular planet. In a practice synthesized with the activity of walking and an ethic of non-harm, she has produced works in a range of forms. Mirra’s open attitude has evolved alongside her appreciation for ancestors and peers across disciplines who have been committed to directness, gentleness and critical inquiry.

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Helen Mirra was born in 1970 in Rochester, New York.
She lives and works in West Marin, California.

Mirra’s practice has consistently been formally minimal, using simple materials while engaged with maximal ideas about perception and participation as a person on this particular planet. In a practice synthesized with the activity of walking and an ethic of non-harm, she has produced works in a range of forms. Mirra’s open attitude has evolved alongside her appreciation for ancestors and peers across disciplines who have been committed to directness, gentleness and critical inquiry.

Helen Mirra select solo and two-persons exhibitions include: Du vent au vent, Rochechouart (2022); Nueve años caminando en las laderas, Museo de Arte Zapopan (2020); No Horizon, BAMPFA, Berkeley, California (2019); Gehen, weben / Camminare, tessere, Kunst Meran / Merano Arte, Meran (2017); Hourly Directional, with Ernst Karel, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge (2014); Gehend (Field Recordings 1-3), KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, and Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2011).

Her work has been included in group exhibitions and institutions such as: Museu de Arte Contemporânea de São Paulo (2018); Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (2018); MCA Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago (2017);  Mudam Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2013); Nasjonalmuseet Oslo (2012); Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia (2011); Kunsthaus Graz, Austria (2011); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2008); Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas (2004); Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley (2003); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2001). Mirra took part in the 50th Biennale di Venezia (2003) and in the 30th Biennal of São Paulo (2012). In 2020 she was the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship. 

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images

Not O P, 2021

Ink on linen

13 × 20,5 × 1,8 cm

Photo: Lele Buonerba

Not V L, 2018

Ink on linen

27 × 40 × 1,8 cm

Photo: Lele Buonerba

Murder, 178, 2005 (detail)

ink and milk paint on cotton

1,6 × 280 cm

Pet hypothesis, 22, 2005 (detail)

ink and milk paint on cotton

1,6 × 205 cm

Waalweg, 2017

linen, wool

37,5 × 22,5 cm

Bale edging carbon copy, 2016

Linen, wool

32 × 26,5 cm

Straw Fold 132, 2016

Installation view of Helen Mirra & Allyson Strafella, fieno fieno fieno, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via Stradella 7, Milan, 2016

132 rectangular straw bales

Each bale approx. 45 × 90 × 35 cm

Hourly Directional Field Notation, 9 January, Arizonan Sonoran Desert, 2012

watercolor on linen

155 × 155 cm

Hourly Directional Field Notation, 16 January, Arizonan Sonoran Desert, 2012

watercolor on linen

155 × 155 cm

public exhibitions

Musee Departemental D'Art Contemporain Chateau De Rochechouart

Rochechouart, France

Du vent au vent

25.2 – 18.9.2022

Photo: Aurélien Mole

Museo de Arte Zapopan

Zapopan, Mexico

Nueve años caminando en las laderas

10.12.2020 – 25.4.2021

Cample Line

Thornhill, Scotland

Acts for placing woolen and linen

13.8 – 19.9.2020

Photo: Mike Bolam

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

University of California

Berkeley

No Horizon: Helen Mirra and Sean Thackrey

3.7 – 25.8.2019

Photo: Glen Cheriton. Courtesy of BAMPFA

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Boston

Common Threads: Weaving Stories Across Time

4.10.2018 – 13.1.2020

Photo by Stewart Clements. Standard Incomparable (partial), organized by Helen Mirra, 2015-2016. Installation view: Common Threads: Weaving Stories Across Time, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.

Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo

São Paulo

Matriz do Tempo Real

13.1 – 18.3.2018

MOCA Yinchuan

2nd Yinchuan Biennale

China

Starting from Desert: Ecologies on the Edge

9.6 – 19.6.2018

Photo: Huang Yachen. Credits: MOCA Yinchuan

Kunst Meran / Merano Arte

Merano

Gehen, weben / Camminare, tessere

22.7 – 24.9.2017

Photo: Ivo Corrà

Armory Center for the Arts

Los Angeles

Ellen Lesperance, Helen Mirra, Traversing

5.6 – 11.9.2016

press

Bałka e Mirra: attraverso lo specchio

Beatrice Ciampa

Antinomie

November 7, 2022

Helen Mirra : une œuvre radicale, écologique et contemplative

Anne-Cécile Sanchez

Le Journal des Arts

March 30, 2022

Virtual walk-through: Standard Incomparable an international project begun by Helen Mirra comprising 65 weavings made by weavers in 16 countries

Mark Westall

FAD Magazine

April 6, 2020

A So-called Artist: An Interview with Helen Mirra

Harsha Menon

Buddhistdoor Global

June 27, 2019

Helen Mirra and Sean Thackrey at BAMPFA: Seeing overlooked beauty in the everyday

Emily S. Mendel

Berkeleyside

July 10, 2019

Gianni Pettena & Helen Mirra Merano Arte, Italy

Barbara Casavecchia

Frieze

November-December 2017

"This is my interest anyway - to not-demand" - Interview with Helen Mirra

Zoë Dankert

Metropolis M

September 8, 2017

Helen Mirra

Galleria Raffaella Cortese | Via Stradella 7

Marco Tagliafierro

Artforum

January 2014

Reference Material

Peter Eleey

Frieze

November-December 2006

publications

Escritura-a-través

(Mexico City: Merve, 2018) paperback, 278 pages

Helen Mirra

Merve Verlag

Mexico City

2018

Helen Mirra: Edge Habitat Materials

Edited by Alise Upitis

WhiteWalls / University of Chicago Press

Chicago

2014

Gehend

Helen Mirra

Argobooks

Berlin

2013

Helen Mirra: Cloud, the, 3

Edited by Christoph Keller

JRP Ringier

Zurich

2007

Helen Mirra Im Grunewald Berlin

Helen Mirra

Berliner Künstlerprogramm / DAAD

Berlin

2006

Names & Poems

Helen Mirra

WhiteWalls

Chicago

1999

video


Acts for placing woollen and linen

2020

Solo exhibition at Cample Line, Cample, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, UK Video scripted and narrated by Lucy Dale, filmed by Emma Dove


Helen Mirra on Imi Knoebel

2007

Dia Art Foundation Artists on Artists Lecture Series

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