Helen Shearwood
“Each piece is both ordinary and art—much like our messy, perfectly imperfect, and unique selves.”
- Helen Shearwood
Helen Shearwood is a British-Australian artist whose vibrant yet gritty abstract photographs transform overlooked urban objects, such as letterboxes, lampposts and skip bins, into striking visual compositions. Her work explores themes such as perspective, the interplay between inner and outer realities, questioning labels and the psychological patterns that shape human behaviour.
Born in England and raised in the Netherlands, Helen emigrated to Western Australia in 1988. She enjoyed a successful career in graphic design in Perth and London, but significant health challenges in the early 2000s changed her path. In 2017, at a time when she could not see any beauty, Helen started to notice abstract art in the ordinary — an epiphany that reignited her creativity and reshaped her worldview.
Helen blends photography, collage, and mixed media in her work, often fusing colour, texture, and pattern in ways that juxtapose the gritty with the refined. This distinctive style reflects her fascination with paradoxes, such as silk meeting denim, heritage meeting modernity, and refuse becoming art. For Helen, translating hidden beauty into abstract form is an artistic pursuit and a form of therapy that opens spaces for reflection, hope, and human connection.
Helen continues to develop her practice from her base in Western Australia, exploring evolving themes of mindfulness, the transient nature of life, and the subtle connections between micro and macro worlds, inviting viewers to pause, look closer, and see things differently.
Image: Image: Urbane Gazette
About the Artist
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Born 1976 in the UK. Lives and works in Western Australia
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Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025
Alchemy, Linton & Kay Galleries, Subiaco, WA2022
Infinite Beauty, Linton & Kay Galleries, Subiaco, WA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
St James’s University Hospital, Leeds, UK2024
Saltaire Festival Exhibition, Saltaire, UK
The Bingley Gallery, Bingley, UK2023
Christmas Group Exhibition, Ilkley Manor House Cottage, UK
Saltaire Festival Exhibition, Saltaire, UK
Cacophony of Colour, Linton & Kay Galleries, West Perth, WA
Life’s Rich Tapestry, Trapezium Arts, Bradford, UK
The Bingley Gallery, Bingley, UK2022
Staff Selection 2022, Linton & Kay Galleries, West Perth, WA
Saltaire Festival Exhibition, Saltaire, UK2021
Unfolding, Bradford Cathedral & Kala Sangam, Bradford, UK
Saltaire Festival Exhibition, Saltaire, UK2020
Saltaire Festival Online Exhibition, Saltaire, UK
The Bingley Gallery, Bingley, UK
St James’s University Hospital, Leeds, UK2019
The Bingley Gallery Christmas Exhibition, Bingley, UK
Saltaire Festival Exhibition, Saltaire, UK
Perspective with Jane Fielder, Keighley, UK
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Collections
Kunstsammlung Neubrandenburg, Germany
The Copelouzos Family Art Museum, Athens
Macquarie Group Collection
Westpac Bank,
Dr Joseph Brown
BHP Ltd
BHP Petroleum
Albert Tucker Collection
BP Australia, 101 Collins Street
The Melbourne House, Greg Natale
RLD Kent Street Project
Cliff Top House –shortlisted 2015 Australian Interior Design Awards, Hare + Klein
The Melbourne House
Kirribilli Apartment –shortlisted 2015 Australian Interior Design Awards, Hare + Klein
Queens Riverside, Frasers Property Australia
Henley Properties Group
Westin Perth
Sheraton Melbourne
Four Points Sheraton, Central Park, Sydney
Audit Victoria
Nauru House
Grand Chancellor Hotel
Buxton’s at Southbank
kunstGUT Schmiedenfelde, Germany
Private collections in Australia, Germany, America, England, the Netherlands, Italy, Hong Kong CN, Singapore and Dubai UAE.
Awards
2020 Winner, The Paper Bag Award Show, Cross Gallery, Bundaberg, Qld.
2008 University of Ballarat, Research Travel Grant
2007–9 University of Ballarat Research Scholarship
2006 Ministry of Culture, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany (artist workshop)
1992 BP Australia Acquisitive Award
1991 Australia Council, Project Grant
1988 Pura Prize for work on paper, RMIT University
1987 Runner up, John Abdullah and William J. Conn Travelling Scholarship, RMIT University
Selected finalist Art Prizes
2019 The Bundaberg Art Prize, Bundaberg Qld.
2016 The 41st Rio Tinto Martin Hanson Memorial Award, Paper Section, Gladstone Regional Art Gallery
2015 Wyndham Art Prize
2013 Fleurieu Art Prize
2010 Tattersall’s Club Invitation Landscape Art Prize, Art Promotions Queensland
Williamstown Festival Contemporary Art Prize, curator Julie Collins, The Substation, Newport
2007 Kedumba Invitation Drawing Award, Wentworth Falls, NSW.
2006 Hatched 06, National Graduate Show, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA)
2005 Tattersall’s Landscape Art Prize, Art Promotions Queensland
2002 Fleurieu Art Prize & touring exhibition, Fleurieu Peninsula, SA.
1999 The Alice Prize, Alice Springs, NT.
1998 Fleurieu Art Prize, Fleurieu Peninsula, SA.
1997 Outback Art Prize, Broken Hill City Gallery, NSW.
1994 R. M. Ansett Art Award, City of Hamilton Art Gallery
1993 Diamond Valley Acquisitive Awards
1992 Diamond Valley Acquisitive Awards
1992 Artworkz Four, BP Acquisitive Art Awards at 101 Collins Street
1990 Diamond Valley Acquisitive Art Awards
Artworkz Two, BP Acquisitive Awards
1989 Artworkz One, BP Acquisitive Awards
1988 John Abdullah and William J. Conn Traveling Scholarship, RMIT Gallery, Storey Hall, RMIT University
1987 Mitchell College Union (National Student Art Prize) Bathurst
John Abdullah and William J. Conn Traveling Scholarship, Faculty Gallery, RMIT University
From an edition of 3 prints
40 x 30cm