Johannes Heldén b. 1978

Working with a variety of media, Johannes Heldén explores subjects like ecology, evolution, sentience and artificial intelligence. Often set in a near future, Heldén's fictional worlds are created by means of images, animation, text and music, combined in site specific installations, performances and digital works. In a fashion similar to that of science fiction, Heldén invites the viewers to interact and explore the worlds, making them co-creators. In these carefully depicted settings, which resemble the real world in an eerie way, Heldén makes us aware of our own perception and concept of nature, and the impact we have on the planet today.

Johannes Heldén (b. 1978 in Katrineholm, Sweden) holds an MFA from Valand Academy of Fine Arts, Gothenburg (1999-2004). He was the IASPIS artist-in-residence at ISCP, New York in 2018-19, the recipient of the Åke Andrén Art Prize in 2015, and the project Evolution (in collaboration with Håkan Jonson) won the inaugural N. Katherine Hayles prize in 2014. Heldén has exhibited extensively, both in Sweden and internationally, with recent solo exhibitions at Varbergs Konsthall (2020), Judiska Museet C/O Textilmuseet in Borås (2018), Konstakademien in Stockholm (2018), and Kunsthall Trondheim (2017). Recent group exhibitions include ARKEN Museum of Modern Art (2021-22), MSU Broad Museum in East Lansing (2021), Malmö Konstmuseum (2020), Bonniers Konsthall (2019), Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale (2019), and the Desert X biennale in Coachella Valley (2019).

Heldén is represented in the collections of Moderna Museet, Malmö Art Museum, Borås Art Museum, Public Art Agency Sweden, Stockholm City Council, and Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation. He is a fellow of the MacDowell Colony, Headlands Center for the Arts, Hawthornden Castle, among others.