Helen Johannessen's exquisite porcelain surfaces are a mix of optical illusions and abstract. She creates depth using layers, tones, and subtle texture in clay, exploring optical qualities and unusually blending print, brush work, and casting as a contemporary ceramic artist.

Linear and geometric imagery form the basis of Johannessen’s aesthetic, becoming distorted or abstract with the material choice and methods. She reveres the Op Art movement of the 60’s and 70’s. With an acute attention to detail, she produces refined and unexpected ceramics, with an interest in how the visual experience alters in light shift or with movement – be that a shadow appearing or the physical position of the viewer.

On a personal level, Helen often experiences the world as chaotic, unremitting and over stimulating. With ever-shifting technology and its necessities, she often wonders how we process information overload in a constructive way? Her artworks offer visual revelations and distraction, to encourage reverie and allow the imagination to flourish away from screens, devices, and tacit noise. In consolidating this thinking into her ceramic, her practice allows her to develop and think through a systematic process, creating one-off pieces. The work that emerges has a stillness yet subtle visual movement.