Helga Zumstein

The Swiss artist has described her camera as her primary source of inspiration and her “permanent companion,” and her work easily draws comparison with the compositional elements of photography. Zumstein however, strays into the poetic side of realism, using a minimal acrylic palette and taking liberal diversions from her sources of inspiration. Her techniques have allowed her to achieve a refined sense of irony while simultaneously instilling a certain quiet dignity in her paintings. As her focus remains fixed on the living characters that inhabit her paintings, she preserves a striking sense of intimacy that permeates her work.

In her words, her paintings are meant to “extract the special out of the ordinary; the precious out of the banal.”

Her gaze focuses on domestic and bucolic scenes, highlights and celebrates the artistry of quotidian life; how we turn ourselves and our environment into monuments of self-expression in every day and every interaction.

At the forefront of Zumstein’s paintings is a sense of spontaneity, movement and moment, both personal and universal, captured almost as if by chance. It’s in this deeply personal manner that she treads the line between self-expression and hints at the inexpressible and the universal. The moments depicted in Zumstein’s paintings are moments that could happen to anyone, and the beauty that Zumstein holds up, is the type of beauty that goes unnoticed in one’s hectic day-to-day life.

Rather than treating her figures like still life’s, Zumstein imbues them with a contemplative nature, producing a mirror not just for the artist but also for anyone willing to observe their reflection and smile back.

Looking between the bodies and interactions in Helga Zumstein’s work, any viewer can rejoice in her coded messages. Her wholly recognizable scenes show with graphic aptitude that art is everywhere, but sometimes it takes an artist to capture it truly.