Helen Britton
Helen Britton is a multidisciplinary Australian artist based in Munich, Germany. Her work is characterised by finding stories in materials and their manipulation, reassembling them, wanderlust and longing, an exuberant love of storytelling, colour and humour. Her work includes jewellery, sculptures, drawings, stencils and installations and is characterised by folk culture and folk art, endangered traditions, environmental crises and human fears.
While studying art at Curtin University in Western Australia, she was a visiting student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam and San Diego State University in California. In 1999 she returned to Munich to complete a postgraduate programme at the AdBK with Otto Künzli and stayed. In 2002 she founded her workshop in Munich with David Bielander and Yutaka Minegishi.
In March 2011, Helen Drutt-English published a new catalogue of Helen Britton's work. In 2013, at the invitation of the Neue Sammlung, Munich, an overview of 20 years of Helen Britton was shown at the Neues Museum, Nuremberg. In 2017, the exhibition "Intersticies", curated by Ted Snell for the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at the University of Western Australia, was a retrospective of 25 years of work. 2019 Appointed Adjunct Professor at RMIT University in Melbourne. 2020 she curates the selection "Jewellery"/International Crafts Fair in Munich for the Bavarian Chamber of Crafts. 2022 a comprehensive catalogue "Dark Garden" about the artist is published in the Galleria Antonella Villanova for the exhibition of the same name. 2022-23 she was Artist in Residence at the ENSA, Limoges, France. In October 2023 Helen Britton was appointed Living Treasure: Master of Australian Craft by the Australian Design Centre.
The title "Living Treasure: Master of Australian Craft" is awarded by the Australian Design and Craftsmanship movement. This is an initiative that focuses on the recognition and promotion of outstanding craft and design in Australia. The Living Treasure title is awarded to craftspeople and artists who have demonstrated skill, commitment and significant contributions to Australian craft.
The Living Treasure: Master of Australian Craft award is given as an honor to recognize and promote the heritage of craft in Australia. Recipients of this title are often seen as role models and ambassadors for their respective craft disciplines and play an important role in preserving and passing on traditional craftsmanship.