Adam Helms

Artist Adam Helms describes himself as an ethnographer, documenting the iconography and psychology of radical political groups and subcultures. He says, "I am interested in the ethos of violence, the romanticization of extremist ideology, and linking issues from our political past with contemporary events.."

Helms's body of work—ranging from found images, photography, drawing, and sculpture—explores his longstanding fascination with guerrilla warfare, militias, and America's political legacy. For instance, in his series Untitled (48 Portraits, 2010), Helms responded to Gerhard Richter's famous 1972 48 Portraits of 20th century icons like Albert Einstein Franz Kafka with 48 charcoal portraits of anonymous insurgents, militia, guerrillas and subversives.


Helms currently lives and works in New York; his body of work is a combination of found images, photography, drawings, and sculpture. His latest series titled Without Name introduces 48 charcoal drawings depicting anonymous faces—all of which are covered in some way. Yet again Helms experiments with the anonymity and harsh realities of human consciousness and war, a theme he continues to use throughout his work.