Helena Demczuk is an Australian painter based in

Queenstown, Tasmania Queenstown is a historic mining town in the West Coast, Tasmania, West Coast region of the island of Tasmania, Australia. It is in a valley on the western slopes of Mount Owen (Tasmania), Mount Owen on the West Coast Range. At the , Queenstown h ...

. Her parents migrated to Australia from Ukraine after World War II.

Early life and education

Demczuk lived and studied art in Gippsland, Victoria before moving to

Brisbane, Queensland Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

and studying at

Queensland Institute of Technology Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, ...

. Later she studied Ukrainian language and literature at

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

to reconnect with her cultural history, and studied art at

University of Tasmania The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College (University of Tasmania), Christ College, one of the unive ...

, with a semester at

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; ) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, and design. These are all awa ...

Career

In 2005 she and her partner, artist Raymond Arnold, moved to Queenstown and set up Landscape Art Research Queenstown (LARQ), which they ran for a decade. LARQ's artist residency program hosted both International and Australian artists, and held over 50 exhibitions. Their studio was open to visitors, and was a cultural highlight of Queenstown. In 2019 she won the People's Choice in the Bay of Fires Art Prize awards for her work ''Landscape as Memento Mori – the Poet, the Painter, the Curator and the Photographer.'' Alongside her art practise, Demczuk worked at the local library, and since 2022 she has worked as Regional Coordinator for The Unconformity festival in Queenstown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Demczuk, Helena Living people 21st-century Australian painters Year of birth missing (living people) Queensland University of Technology alumni Monash University alumni University of Tasmania alumni Artists from Tasmania Australian people of Ukrainian descent People from Queenstown, Tasmania 21st-century Australian women painters