Pablo Helguera
@pablohelguera.bsky.social
Artist, educator, performer, storyteller, observer
A tale of two countries, the missing bones of a national hero, a teaching snake, the trickster ghost of a conceptual artist: I left Santa Cruz, Bolivia, thinking about the importance of understories.
( incluye versión en español)
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/cruceno-un...
( incluye versión en español)
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/cruceno-un...
Cruceño Understories
[Letter from Bolivia]
pablohelguera.substack.com
July 31, 2025 at 3:04 PM
A tale of two countries, the missing bones of a national hero, a teaching snake, the trickster ghost of a conceptual artist: I left Santa Cruz, Bolivia, thinking about the importance of understories.
( incluye versión en español)
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/cruceno-un...
( incluye versión en español)
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/cruceno-un...
What if we stopped announcing artistic purpose like a press release? Here are some thoughts on self-transcendence, quiet integrity, and how to sidestep the art world’s performance trap.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/public-and...
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/public-and...
Public and Private Purpose
Keeping our artist statements to ourselves.
pablohelguera.substack.com
July 10, 2025 at 5:40 PM
What if we stopped announcing artistic purpose like a press release? Here are some thoughts on self-transcendence, quiet integrity, and how to sidestep the art world’s performance trap.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/public-and...
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/public-and...
Finally, after a full year of work, I am thrilled to share a piece I wrote for Places Journal- a piece about Carlos Barrera Reyes , a Mexican socially engaged artist seeking to revive the indigenous tradition of natural dyes in textiles in Chiapas.
placesjournal.org/article/a-ge...
placesjournal.org/article/a-ge...
Art and Social Fabric in San Cristóbal de Las Casas
In Chiapas, Mexico, the Mayan tradition of using natural dyes in textiles was disappearing — until one artist helped local weavers relearn the Indigenous methods. This is the crux and challenge of soc...
placesjournal.org
May 15, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Finally, after a full year of work, I am thrilled to share a piece I wrote for Places Journal- a piece about Carlos Barrera Reyes , a Mexican socially engaged artist seeking to revive the indigenous tradition of natural dyes in textiles in Chiapas.
placesjournal.org/article/a-ge...
placesjournal.org/article/a-ge...
I am delighted to share that I am curating a show at the MCA Chicago— a place that is very special for me as I worked there once as a young museum educator. My proposal was to develop the exhibition through conversations with Chicago artists and activists .
visit.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/...
visit.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/...
» Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera
visit.mcachicago.org
May 6, 2025 at 10:19 PM
I am delighted to share that I am curating a show at the MCA Chicago— a place that is very special for me as I worked there once as a young museum educator. My proposal was to develop the exhibition through conversations with Chicago artists and activists .
visit.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/...
visit.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/...
April 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Kafka's The Trial. I have been working on illustrations for a new edition, imagining the book as a sequence of mise-en-scènes.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/the-trial-...
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/the-trial-...
#beautifuleccentrics
The Trial (scenes and excerpts)
Illustrations 100 years after the first publication of Kafka's The Trial (April 1925)
pablohelguera.substack.com
April 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM
April 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Kafka's The Trial. I have been working on illustrations for a new edition, imagining the book as a sequence of mise-en-scènes.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/the-trial-...
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/the-trial-...
#beautifuleccentrics
During the Covid pandemic in 2020 I delivered free singing telegrams to countless people all over the world over the course of a month and a half. Here is the story.
#beautifuleccentrics
# pablohelguera.substack.com/p/music-ther...
#beautifuleccentrics
# pablohelguera.substack.com/p/music-ther...
Music Therapy
5 years after The Grand Central Singing Telegram Co.
pablohelguera.substack.com
March 23, 2025 at 12:31 AM
During the Covid pandemic in 2020 I delivered free singing telegrams to countless people all over the world over the course of a month and a half. Here is the story.
#beautifuleccentrics
# pablohelguera.substack.com/p/music-ther...
#beautifuleccentrics
# pablohelguera.substack.com/p/music-ther...
Today's political reality presents the question of how we can push back, not just with anger or cynicism, but also with new, creative models and ideas. An idea: can we be common-sense absurdists?
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/a-rebels-t...
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/a-rebels-t...
A Rebel's Toolkit
Part 1: Absurdist Common Sense
pablohelguera.substack.com
February 27, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Today's political reality presents the question of how we can push back, not just with anger or cynicism, but also with new, creative models and ideas. An idea: can we be common-sense absurdists?
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/a-rebels-t...
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/a-rebels-t...
I wrote about a series of works by Ruben Ortiz-Torres that particularly interested me: palladium prints of Peruvian restaurants in Southern California with depictions of Machu Picchu.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/fanciful-t...
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/fanciful-t...
Fanciful Topophilia
On archaeological reproductions in restaurants.
pablohelguera.substack.com
February 20, 2025 at 2:40 PM
I wrote about a series of works by Ruben Ortiz-Torres that particularly interested me: palladium prints of Peruvian restaurants in Southern California with depictions of Machu Picchu.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/fanciful-t...
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/fanciful-t...
Here is a reflection on the dialectics of beauty and ugliness for art making in these undeniably ugly political times.
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/beautiful-...
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/beautiful-...
The Beautiful Protest
A few weeks ago I was in a group conversation with art collectors, most of which are supporters of contemporary art organizations.
pablohelguera.substack.com
February 13, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Here is a reflection on the dialectics of beauty and ugliness for art making in these undeniably ugly political times.
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/beautiful-...
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/beautiful-...
Yesterday morning I was in sitting in Vips in Mexico City’s colonia Roma and wrote this note. #beautifuleccentrics
open.substack.com/pub/pablohel...
open.substack.com/pub/pablohel...
Yearning for Known Quantities
Musings in a Mexico City café.
open.substack.com
February 6, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Yesterday morning I was in sitting in Vips in Mexico City’s colonia Roma and wrote this note. #beautifuleccentrics
open.substack.com/pub/pablohel...
open.substack.com/pub/pablohel...
Thinking today about identity borders in work and life, and how they often merge ( sometimes as art)
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/spillover-...
Image: Detail from Frida Kahlo’s Las dos Fridas (The Two Fridas), 1939
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/spillover-...
Image: Detail from Frida Kahlo’s Las dos Fridas (The Two Fridas), 1939
Spillover and Severance
Performing the divided self.
pablohelguera.substack.com
January 16, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Thinking today about identity borders in work and life, and how they often merge ( sometimes as art)
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/spillover-...
Image: Detail from Frida Kahlo’s Las dos Fridas (The Two Fridas), 1939
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/spillover-...
Image: Detail from Frida Kahlo’s Las dos Fridas (The Two Fridas), 1939
Chasing the Shadows of Butterflies
(A beginning-of-year note)
pablohelguera.substack.com
January 9, 2025 at 2:38 PM
On these days when we get a deluge of “best of year” lists, I want to celebrate instead the ordinary, everyday moments that are meaningful to us. Here is a small reflection on that on the last hours of 2024. Happy new year.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/12-images-...
12 Images in the Guise of Grapes
Celebrating ordinary moments.
pablohelguera.substack.com
January 1, 2025 at 1:19 AM
On these days when we get a deluge of “best of year” lists, I want to celebrate instead the ordinary, everyday moments that are meaningful to us. Here is a small reflection on that on the last hours of 2024. Happy new year.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/12-images-...
Last week Netflix launched a series after García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. The author opposed selling the rights for a film adaptation, but his sons took that step after his passing. Here are some thoughts on the topic.
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/streaming-...
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/streaming-...
Streaming Macondo
Bringing One Hundred Years of Solitude to the screen.
pablohelguera.substack.com
December 19, 2024 at 3:46 PM
Last week Netflix launched a series after García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. The author opposed selling the rights for a film adaptation, but his sons took that step after his passing. Here are some thoughts on the topic.
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/streaming-...
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/streaming-...
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg used to say that democracy is like a pendulum, swinging back and forth in a fashion that incrementally leads to progress. Here are some thoughts on how these swings have played out in recent decades in regard to culture.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/rbgs-pendu...
RBG’s Pendulum
On the structure of conservative counter-revolutions.
pablohelguera.substack.com
December 12, 2024 at 9:32 PM
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg used to say that democracy is like a pendulum, swinging back and forth in a fashion that incrementally leads to progress. Here are some thoughts on how these swings have played out in recent decades in regard to culture.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/rbgs-pendu...
How to channel rage creatively? What happens if we are unexpectedly left with managing an artist's estate? How to think about art works by other artists that look a lot like ours? The December edition of The Estheticist is here.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/the-esthet...
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/the-esthet...
#beautifuleccentrics
December 5, 2024 at 12:10 PM
How to channel rage creatively? What happens if we are unexpectedly left with managing an artist's estate? How to think about art works by other artists that look a lot like ours? The December edition of The Estheticist is here.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/the-esthet...
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/the-esthet...
#beautifuleccentrics
The Estheticist is back! Send a question concerning any ethical, conceptual, personal, legal, philosophical, and/or practical dilemmas at theestheticist@gmail.com. The column comes out on Thursday. #beautifuleccentrics
December 1, 2024 at 9:50 PM
The Estheticist is back! Send a question concerning any ethical, conceptual, personal, legal, philosophical, and/or practical dilemmas at theestheticist@gmail.com. The column comes out on Thursday. #beautifuleccentrics
The American Folk Art Museum has a great exhibition of Shaker gift drawings on view. Here are some notes about how their ideas and ethos can serve us as a guide today.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/when-true-...
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/when-true-...
#beautifuleccentrics
When True Simplicity is Gained
A Shaker notebook.
pablohelguera.substack.com
November 21, 2024 at 4:18 PM
The American Folk Art Museum has a great exhibition of Shaker gift drawings on view. Here are some notes about how their ideas and ethos can serve us as a guide today.
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/when-true-...
#beautifuleccentrics
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/when-true-...
#beautifuleccentrics
last week’s column, touching on how hyperreality strikes back:
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/meditation...
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/meditation...
Meditations in an American Mall
(a performance lecture)
pablohelguera.substack.com
November 17, 2024 at 8:47 PM
last week’s column, touching on how hyperreality strikes back:
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/meditation...
pablohelguera.substack.com/p/meditation...
I arrived! Looking forward to finding new views from this perch.
November 14, 2024 at 11:40 PM
I arrived! Looking forward to finding new views from this perch.