Helen Hawley is a visual artist working in painting, text, installation, and time-based media. Her projects often begin with a fascination or question and develop through self-imposed systems, material experimentation, and the relationship between words and things.
She received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she was a University Fellow.
Recent exhibitions include Powerhouse Arts (Brooklyn, 2026), Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (2026), Drawing Rooms (Jersey City, 2025), Field Projects Gallery (New York, 2024), and CICA Museum (South Korea, 2024). She has presented solo exhibitions at Arts + Literature Laboratory and James Watrous Gallery in Madison, Wisconsin, and her work has been included in the Wisconsin Triennial and exhibitions at Flux Factory in New York. Her experimental hand-drawn animation has been screened internationally, including at the Beijing International Short Film Festival.
Her work has been supported by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, and residencies in the United States, Germany, and Senegal. Her poems have appeared in Stanchion Zine, Oakland Review, and La Piccioletta Barca.
She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, where she is an Associate Teaching Professor in the School of Art + Design at Northern Arizona University.
