HELEN KILBY NELSON
Helen Kilby Nelson is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores how social and institutional systems shape lived experience through archives, conversation and material assemblage.
Practice Overview
Kilby Nelson’s practice examines the intersections of identity, health, policy and place. Her earlier work developed through socially engaged and participatory projects exploring housing, inequality and community voice. Since 2023 her practice has moved toward a studio-based approach centred on mixed media assemblage, combining drawing, paint, text and textile materials to construct layered surfaces that hold fragments of research, documentation and lived experience.
Selected Exhibitions
2023
Humanity – Outside In
Sotheby’s, London
Project Ability, Glasgow
Brighton & Hove Museums, Brighton
2022
Invisible Cities: Dear Brum
Selfridges x Birmingham City University
2021
I Apostrophe S
Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art: HYPER-POSSIBLE
2021
Lockdown Lullabies
LTB Showrooms, Coventry
2020
It Gets Lighter From Here: Resurgence
Vivid Projects & Culture Central
2020
Art & Activism
Outside In
Artist Residencies
2023
Susanna and the Elders
University of Brighton x Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
2021
School of Participation
Novi Sad x Walk the Plank x Coventry City of Culture
Selected Projects & Programme Development
2022
Navigating Disaster – arts practice development educational game (co-creator)
2021
A Parallel State x Beyond the Anthropocene – co-curator
Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art
2021
Working in the Public Realm – arts practice development educational game (co-creator)
2021
Speedy Crits – Programme Manager
Coventry Artspace
2020
S-o-A Community Art Project – creator, facilitator and curator
Talks & Panels
2021
Arts and Activism – Arts Rising, Stratford-upon-Avon
2021
Arts Lab Launch: Collaborative Art – Birmingham City University
2021
Come Together – Hello Culture x Coventry
2020
Artist Development Research Panel – Coventry Artspace
Education
MA Arts & Education Practices
Birmingham City University (2021–2022)
BA (Hons) Fine Art and Contemporary Cultures – First Class
University of Gloucestershire (2018)
FdA Fine Art and Contemporary Cultures – Distinction
Birmingham City University (2017)
Selected Publications & Mentions
Whose Story Is It Anyway? – Social Art Library (2021)
Home Complex Home – Coventry Biennial Communiqué (2020)
Twin Stranger: Entangled State – New Art West Midlands (2019)
A full CV including exhibitions, publications, talks and collaborative projects is available on request.
