A mathematician turned visual artist, Helena Kauppila is deeply fascinated by complex systems and the phenomena of emergence. Although Kauppila's work is representational, she derives her understanding of representation from mathematics, which can get quite abstract. Correspondingly, while her colorful canvases may appear haphazard and unplanned, there is a systems thinking behind them. Her work reflects the order of the genome, the structure of mathematical theories, and the visceral human connection to nature and intuitive experience.
Kauppila currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. She holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Columbia University and is the recipient of the Reginald Marsh and Felicia Meyer Marsh scholarship at the Art Students League of New York. In 2019 Kauppila was selected by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts iKSV for an artist residency in Turkey, and in 2021 she was the ART/ist in residence at the Finnish Institute in Germany. Her works are part of several private collections including the Timo Miettinen Collection in Berlin/Helsinki.