HELEN KILBY NELSON
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Helen Kilby Nelson is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores how social and institutional systems shape lived experience through archives, conversation and material assemblage.
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Practice Overview
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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.
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Selected Exhibitions
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2023
Humanity – Outside In
Sotheby’s, London
Project Ability, Glasgow
Brighton & Hove Museums, Brighton
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2022
Invisible Cities: Dear Brum
Selfridges x Birmingham City University
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2021
I Apostrophe S
Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art: HYPER-POSSIBLE
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2021
Lockdown Lullabies
LTB Showrooms, Coventry
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2020
It Gets Lighter From Here: Resurgence
Vivid Projects & Culture Central
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2020
Art & Activism
Outside In
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Artist Residencies
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2023
Susanna and the Elders
University of Brighton x Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
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2021
School of Participation
Novi Sad x Walk the Plank x Coventry City of Culture
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Selected Projects & Programme Development
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2022
Navigating Disaster – arts practice development educational game (co-creator)
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2021
A Parallel State x Beyond the Anthropocene – co-curator
Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art
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2021
Working in the Public Realm – arts practice development educational game (co-creator)
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2021
Speedy Crits – Programme Manager
Coventry Artspace
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2020
S-o-A Community Art Project – creator, facilitator and curator
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Talks & Panels
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2021
Arts and Activism – Arts Rising, Stratford-upon-Avon
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2021
Arts Lab Launch: Collaborative Art – Birmingham City University
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2021
Come Together – Hello Culture x Coventry
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2020
Artist Development Research Panel – Coventry Artspace
Education
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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)
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Selected Publications & Mentions
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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)
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A full CV including exhibitions, publications, talks and collaborative projects is available on request.
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