We are pleased to announce Helle Mellemstrand as the winner of the Coast Contemporary Prize 2024!

Helle Mellemstrand is a remarkable woman. She works with wool, glue, and handmade felt, creating large-scale installations and intricate works. Her pieces may evoke thoughts of wounds, scabs, fat, brains, intestines, a delicious dessert, or the latest fashion on the cover of Vogue. In her own unique way of treating wool — developed through many years of research and experimentation — the grand work feels fresh and undiscovered, yet there is also something ancient and timeless in Helle Mellemstrand’s art.

Mellemstrand is based in Stavanger and graduated from the Bergen School of Applied Arts with a Master’s in Textiles in 1986.

The jury was simply overwhelmed when we discovered Helle’s world and works in her studio at Tou in Stavanger during the OSS Studio Festival, and we are excited to present her work at Coast Contemporary in September 2024. Selected textile works will be exhibited in Oslo during the eighth edition of Coast.

The jury consisted of Heather Jones, independent curator and co-founder and editor of Contemporary Art Stavanger (CAS), and Tanja Sæter, founder of Coast Contemporary.