Helen Kilby Nelson
My practice has developed from a socially engaged arts background, rooted in working with people, place and systems. Earlier projects explored questions of identity, authority and collective experience, including a two-year community project in Stratford-upon-Avon, work with The Parallel State, and a collaboration with Amelia Hawk alongside participants from the Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre and Warwickshire County Council’s Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. These experiences established an ongoing interest in how systems shape and define lived experience, and how individuals navigate, resist and respond to them.
Illness led to a period of pause, which in turn prompted a shift in my practice. Through slowing down, reflection and observation, I began to reconnect with making in a more personal and material way. Journaling became a central process, allowing me to process and hold experience over time.
My current work focuses on lived experience within multiple systems—medical, institutional and personal—and the tensions between them. I explore the gap between lived reality and the institutional voice, working with fragments of language and material to disrupt, reframe and reduce systems of authority.
While the scale and form of the work has shifted, the core concerns remain. My practice continues to question systems, challenge structures of power, and seek ways of reclaiming autonomy through making.
Lived Experience
My practice is shaped by lived experience of navigating healthcare and institutional systems over time. As someone who is AuDHD, these experiences have informed both how I move through the world and how I make work.
Coming from a working-class background and entering the arts later in life, I bring a perspective that is attentive to how systems are encountered, understood and negotiated in everyday contexts. Experiences of difference and stigma from an early age have further shaped this awareness, informing an ongoing sensitivity to how individuals are positioned within social and institutional structures.
A period of illness created a pause in my practice, allowing time for reflection and a shift towards more personal, material ways of working.
I tend to approach both life and practice through attention to detail, collecting and holding information in order to understand a wider picture. This way of thinking sits at the core of my work, where fragments are brought together to explore the relationships between lived experience and the structures that attempt to define it.
Education
2021 – 2022 (September to April)
MA Arts & Education Practices
Birmingham City University
2018
BA (Hons) Fine Art and Contemporary Cultures – First Class
University of Gloucestershire
2017
FdA Fine Art and Contemporary Cultures – Distinction
Birmingham City University
Recent 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, Coventry
2021
Lockdown Lullabies
LTB Showrooms, Coventry
2020
It Gets Lighter From Here: Resurgence
Vivid Projects & Culture Central
2020
Art & Activism: I Am Not
Outside In
2020
Art & Activism: This is Fucking Normal
Outside In
Pre-2020 exhibition history available on request.
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, Serbia
Professional Development
2021
Storytelling for Artists
Social Art Library x Social Art Network
2020
Active Reality Research Lab
New Art West Midlands x New Art Gallery Walsall
2020
AD:vantage Leadership Programme
Lead With Advantage, Coventry
Programme Creation & 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
A Parallel State x Doncaster Art Bomb – co-creator
Public Art Forum, Doncaster
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, curator
2020
Speedy Crits – online artist professional development programme (creator)
Community Collaborations
2021
Communi-Tea – co-curator
Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art
2021
Clopton Comedy Club – S-o-A Community Art Project
Stratford-upon-Avon
2022
Bishopton Primary School - S-o-A Community Art Project
Stratford upon Avon
Workshops
2022
Chatterbox Art School – creative workshop
2019
Mock the Weak – workshop
Spam & Chips, Co-op(t) Arty Party 2: Integrate, Coventry
2019
What Do Artists Do All Day? – conversation
Arcadia Gallery, Coventry
2019
Re-imagining Monopoly – workshop
32 Brains, Arcadia Gallery, Coventry
Talks and Panels
2021
Arts and Activism – Arts Rising
Stratford-upon-Avon (invited speaker)
2021
Arts Lab Launch: Collaborative Art
Birmingham City University (invited speaker)
2021
Come Together
Hello Culture x Coventry (invited speaker)
2020
Artist Development Research Panel
Coventry Artspace (invited panel member)
2020
Digital & Gaming Roundtable
Birmingham 2020 (invited panel member)
Selected Publications
2021
Whose Story Is It Anyway?
Social Art Library
2020
Home Complex Home
Communiqué Four, Coventry Biennial
2019
Review – Twin Stranger: Entangled State
New Art West Midlands
2019
The Twin at Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art
Axisweb
2018–2019
Graduate Artist in Residence Blog
Coventry Artspace
2018
Shifting Ground – Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art publication
Selected Mentions
2021
AD:vantage Leadership Programme – Interview
New Art West Midlands
2021
Communiqué Five – Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art
2021
Top Ten Virtual Shows Across the UK & Ireland – Outside In
Frieze Magazine
2020
Studio Visit Artists Announced
New Art West Midlands
2019
Artist Spotlight Interview – Curating Coventry
2019
Digital Living – Axisweb Monthly Playlist
2019
360° Perpetuation – Axisweb Weekly Highlights
2019
For the Sake of a Shilling – Axisweb, Sound & Vision
2018
Worth//Less – Axisweb Weekly Highlights
2018
For the Sake of a Shilling – Prize Winner
Spon Spun Arts & Heritage Festival