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Art is standing with one hand extended into the universe and one hand extended into the world, and letting ourselves be a conduit for passing energy. ~ Albert Einstein
Downtown Light 12" x 48" - four wooden cradled panels with acrylic paint and ink, finished with acrylic resin Placed with a Northern California collection by James Bacchi Contemporary | Palm Springs + San Francisco
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2023 Exploring Within | How do we heal?
New Series of Drawings 2022-23
This series explores the body at a cellular level. Made up of trillions of cells, the body grows through cell division, forming new cells. Cells grow old or become damaged, dying as new cells take their place. Disease happens when adolescent cells grow uncontrollably, spreading and nesting. The breakdown in the orderly process sees abnormal damaged cells growing where they should not, then forming lumps of tissue. These invaders can travel to distant places in body. How do we heal at our cellular level? How do we promote health in those tiniest of places?
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2022 SUMMER | PALM SPRINGS
DTLA Swirl 30" x 30" heading to Palm Springs thanks to James Bacchi Contemporary
PATTER HELLSTROM COLOR AND MOTION / VESPA LOS ANGELES
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2020 / 2021 WINTER LIGHT Commission two paintings 72" x 36" acrylic on panel installed
2020 BLACK FLAG
Displaying a U.S. flag upside down is a signal of dire distress, signaling mourning, danger, and penalty. Our stars and stripes have been in dire straights with the U.S. Captial breached by domestic terrorists. The pandemic ravaging all fifty states. Systemic racism drove thousands to take to the streets in protest.
These paintings represent the four directions - Eastern Light (left top) Northern Divide (right top) Southern Whitewash (left lower) and Westward Ho (right lower)
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2020 THE SPACE BETWEEN US Hellstrom investigates the six-foot space indicated in social distance. Looking though that lens and exploring the ways we are separated. Her investigation includes drawings of the COVID-19 cells, energetic gestural paintings, and awkward disconnected elements. The new clunky and awkward disconnections are broken brush strokes. The paint density is concurrent with overlapping pandemic, systemic racism, democracy endangered, and economic distress. Change, transition, and transformation are consistent themes in her work, marking this moment in time.
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On View EPAC EXHIBITION / NORTH CAROLINA
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LARGE SCALE PROJECTS
Ascending Heart A super graphic over 36 feet long at Guided Choice in San Diego.
About energy, the piece graces a new tech/financial company mixing brush strokes and digital media to create visual excitement in the workplace.
Source Art | Los Angeles managed and directed the project.
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ART + ACTIVISM
Spatial stillness within the paintings reveal voids and examine the interconnectedness between energy and silence. Aegean inspired blue waves combined with the Greek mati protection symbol figure prominently. Imperfect Protection combines art and political practice. Hellstrom calls to action elected US officials, inscribing their names among the waves of distress diminishing America. The artists' daily call lists are inscribed, documenting one citizens' voice spoken with urgency in our current climate.
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Undertow installed in private collection
SF Condo Building Signature piece | Dreams Together 48" x 48"
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DESIGN | ELLE FRANCE + SMW Design
Hungry Ghost Dreams in Hamptons Home Show | Traditional Home magazine
Installed in BLU SF
ABOUT GALLERY COMMISSIONS | Patter Hellstrom has completed many gallery commissions. "Commissioned by ArtHaus gallery to create a 36”x120” painting from her “Flow” series for a new San Francisco home for Beijing based collectors. For Hellstrom, the challenge she welcomed was the size of this commission. Her ability to listen, communicate and understand to exactly what these collectors wanted and her execution of six comp paintings were outstanding. These collectors wanted their painting to exude passion. The final painting was everything and more they’d hoped for. As an art dealer, trusting an artist throughout the commission process is vital. Patter Hellstrom’s attention to detail, deadlines and artistry made this process satisfying and enjoyable." Annette Schutz, Co-‐Founder ArtHaus gallery
2019 ART + EDUCATION
USC STEAM PROJECT
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Grief Path Installation + Film 
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PATTER HELLSTROM CURATORIAL
Corporate . Museum . Gallery
“I first worked with Patter Hellstrom Visual Art when Vedder Price, an international general-practice law firm, selected Patter’s work for the second quarterly art installation in our San Francisco office. Patter and Paul also worked closely with us to plan our first client/artist reception, which featured Patter’s works. When we opened our Los Angeles office, we engaged Patter Hellstrom Visual Art to curate its quarterly art installations. Patter and Paul have been outstanding art partners offering a variety of works from local artists, attending to every detail, and providing beautiful collateral material to accompany each installation. I highly recommend them.” Michele Reilly, Office Manager Vedder Price SF
Vedder Price Los Angeles
Art rotations since 2014
Gina Stepaniuk / Marion Lane / Gregg Chadwick / Gay Summer Rick / Nadege Monchera Baer / Catherine Ruane / Jill Sykes / Bryan Ida / Sonja Schenk / Kim Mara + Christine Rasmussen / Javiera Estrada / Annie Seaton / Shingo Francis / Krista Machovina / Patter Hellstrom / Beth Waldman / Steve Seleska
Vedder Price Chicago International Headquarters
- Michael Davidson and Thomas Hellstrom | Rita Grendze and Krista Svalbonas | Elina Ruka | Anne Hayden Stevens | Jane Carney | Jeanine Coupe Ryding | Jack Nixon | Michael Finneghan | Gail Mancuso | Laurie Kwo | Beth Herman Adler
Work placed in private and corporate settings
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2023 Looking Within | How do we heal? (32)
This series explores healing on a cellular level. Looking closely at nests of rapidly replicating cells and the health of those cells in relation to each other. Weighing the fact that a simple error in micro level development leads to disease. -
2021-2022 Los Angeles Light (28)
Inspired by the Los Angeles sky, Hellstrom investigates the bold color and golden hues revealed in it's constant state of change. The COVID closure has transforned the air quality, seeing the clearest enviroment in a decade. When we connect with our environment and each other - we survive. Ray Bradbury famously said, “Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.” Falling through the DTLA sky supported by color and light, we begin to find our way to soar. -
2020 Pandemic | The Space Between US (31)
Hellstrom investigates the six-foot space indicated in social distance. Looking though that lens and exploring the ways we are separated. Her investigation includes drawings of the COVID-19 cells, energetic gestural paintings, and awkward disconnected elements. All these speak to the space between us. The new clunky and awkward disconnections are broken brush strokes. The paint density is concurrent with overlapping pandemic, systemic racism, and economic distress. Change, transition, and transformation are consistent themes in her work, marking this moment in time.Several of these painting are avaiable as printed COVID safe face masks. -
2018 - 2019 LA Fetish Finish Explored (19)
2019 paintings are resin finished mixed media on cradled wood board. They offer a fresh iteration of Hellstrom's work. These works coming out of her DTLA Arts district studio have a dialogue with the Los Angeles "Fetish Finish" movement, with their slick surfaces and materials exploration. SoCal has a history of it's interest in cars and surf boards polished to a high shine surface. Resin calls to that surface quality that speaks to a sense of place. -
2016 Mariposa | Cocoon to Butterfly (21)
Mariposa expands the artists'media to mixed media on resin finished cradled wood panels. This group of paintings addresses change, transformation and the flow of energy that supports stepping into uncertainty. In her San Francisco studio near Mariposa Street, Hellstrom explored the confluence of a sense of place and artistic concept. There at the intersection of Potrero Hill, Mission Bay and DogPatch - she created this body of work. -
2016 - 2018 Art + Activism | Imperfect Protection (10)
Viewing the sky as a canvas of emotion and energy, Hellstrom creates a reflection of our moment in time. Spatial stillness in the voids examine the interconnected quality between energy and action. Imperfect Protection combines art and political practice. This work calls to action elected US officials, inscribing their names among the waves of distress which are diminishing America. The artists' daily call lists are inscribed, documenting one citizens' voice spoken with urgency in our current climate. The alchemy of how experience is lived out dwells in the constancy of change despite our desire for permanence. -
2015 Innovation in Design (21)
Acrylic ink on polypropylene is an innovative technique discovered and unveiled by the artist in 2007 at Masterworks Institute in SF. These gestural contemporary pieces have been shown widely and collected by museums and private collectors in the United States. ELLE FRANCE highlighted Hellstrom's tartan textile inspired paintings as they relate to historic British tartans. SF designer Scot Meacham Wood has showcased these pieces with his contemporary tartan designs.Designers at Lemar Urban exhibited her work as part of a BLU, a contemporary penthouse design. -
Engaging Technology (27)
Our experience of the world though digital devices became the focus of her 2015 solo exhibition, recognizing the ever-present smart phones' role in mediating and collecting experiences. "Quick Response" debuted interactive work at ArtHaus Gallery in SF. Blending painting and interactive technology the vision was achieved. Viewers found a new way to connect through a layers of experience. First visceral, seeing saturated color and gestural movement then through a digital portal. A click of a smart phone app and the viewer moved deeper into each work. QR Codes included Patter's iPhone captures thus distilling her experience through the device, bringing the experience full circle. -
Shaped pieces and intimate scale (33)
In 2011 shaped installations and collages on the polypropylene film marked the start of a new exploration of Hellstrom's medium. Exploring the properties of polypropylene and acrylic ink, these works delve into the dark beauty of disruptions encountered in daily life. Focus turns to the shaped pieces which encapsulate the flow of emotion, releasing the gesture from its' format. These works continue and are concurrent with panel paintings. -
Grand Scale (44)
Inspired by study of calligraphy in China, experiences of nature on the west coast of the USA and the intense color seen in India, Hellstrom creates abstract work which distills experience. The paintings created on polypropylene material with acrylic water-resistant artists ink are a new media, intensely colored. Polypropylene material is a synthetic type of film or paper with extraordinary durability. Flawlessly smooth, it professionally back-mounted to a plexi substrate. The wooden frame adhered to the plexi has a cleated hanging system. This installation method allows the painting to "float" from the wall enhancing the gestural quality of the work, showing it to it's best advantage. Panel paintings back-mounted on acrylic sheets showcase large-scale work by Patter Hellstrom. Works are available through galleries and art dealers in Chicago, San Francisco,and Los Angeles. -
Contemporary Practice (9)
Creating installations with fresh flowers since 2003, those large-scale projects have been commissioned by Unilever and JPMorgan Chase for their Campus and Project Space, respectivly. Mindfully created Flower Mandalas with concentric circles of 500+ individually placed fresh flowers, these works are dedicated to recognizing beauty, transformation,and compassion. Installations created with natural materials such as flowers, tumbled glass and rock, connect interior thoughts on interdependence and impermanence to the larger natural world. -
Commissions + Super Graphics (12)
BD BIO TECH /Inspired by the brilliant pigments of multicolor flow cytometry, Patter Hellstrom created this large-scale piece for BD Biosciences to commemorate the creation of the first set of Product Development Modules on campus. This new spatial ecosystem is designed to improve collaboration and teamwork to promote scientific innovation, stimulate technological breakthroughs, and accelerate product development from idea to launch. GRACE on view caps the innovation space in relationship to the expansive super graphic.