By Carl Kruse

Ivy Circle member Helena Kauppila who we have done several events with in the past (see her well-received brunch here) invites the Ivy Circle and friends to her continuing exhibition at the Miettinen Collection.

Here is the invite from Helena herself:

“I am honored that my recent work Early Life (2025) will be included in the exhibition A Little Madness in the Spring, an exhibition in collaboration with Sotheby’s International Realty and the Miettinen Collection.

The exhibition is open by appointment until July 11th, 2025. To make an appointment, please contact Riina Kylätasku at the Miettinen Collection (the email contact is below).

The exhibition is curated by Riina Kylätasku and explores the themes of spring and the beauty of life. How artists translate nature’s wild renewal into paint–revealing beauty not just in what grows, but in how we feel it. The title is inspired by Emily Dickinson’s famous poem “A Little Madness in the Spring:”

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown – 
Who ponders this tremendous scene – 
This whole Experiment of Green – 
As if it were his own!

In my painting Early Life, I go back to the very beginning of life on Earth. What is life? How did life first arise? How is life connected?  Not only genetics and biology but many fields of inquiry are involved in trying to answer these origin questions.

There’s a subtle visual element in this painting arising from the embedded DNA code: under certain lighting conditions, when blue or purple tones come forward, large-scale structures emerge—only to dissolve again as the light shifts. The painting thus balances between order and chaos, between system and individual.  

If you would like to add Early Life to your collection, or are interested in visiting the exhibition A Little Madness in the Spring, please contact Riina Kylätasku at the Miettinen Collection: kylaetasku@miettinen-collection.de

Best regards,
Helena

About Helena:
A mathematician turned visual artist, Helena is intrigued by complexity and emerging systems. While her colorful work may appear random and disjointed, there is a systems process behind it, often anchored in mathematics. Her work touches on the structure of DNA, mathematical theories, and the human connection to nature and the world around us..

Kauppila lives in Berlin and holds a doctorate in Mathematics from Columbia University and is the recipient of the Reginald Marsh and Felicia Meyer Marsh scholarship at the Art Students League of New York.