Rae Helms
MFA Printmaking, 2025
I create works that invite reflection on how cycles of use, neglect, and transformation shape the spaces we inhabit and the relationships they sustain. Through poetic interventions between print, sculpture, and glass, I form narratives of loss, care, and resilience. In doing so I engage with material histories of extraction and consumption. Investigating the human imprint on our environment, my work explores the fragility of place and the traces we leave behind.
My practice is rooted in ecological resistance and examines the permanence of human impact while advocating for sustainable coexistence. I utilize remnants found in cities that serve as physical expressions of loss in both public and private spaces. These forms of remembrance raise questions about impermanence and the tension between preservation and erosion. I seek to preserve, and to imagine new ways of caring for the spaces we inhabit, both individually and collectively.
"Asphalt," "Parking Lot," "Rain Garden" (gallery installation shot), 2025, Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"Asphalt," "Parking Lot," "Rain Garden" (gallery installation shot), 2025, Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"Asphalt," "Parking Lot," "Rain Garden" (gallery installation shot), 2025, Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"Asphalt," "Parking Lot," "Rain Garden" (gallery installation shot), 2025, Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"Fault Lines," 2025, Concrete, Glass, Dirt, Dandelion, clover, Goldenrod, Alfalfa. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"In Memory of…," 2025, Spite bite aquatint on muslin. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"To remain," 2025, Concrete, Glass, Dirt, Dandelion, clover, Goldenrod, Alfalfa. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"In the living room peeling skins and You," (gallery installation shot), 2025, Reclaimed found objects from a collapsed West Philadelphia home. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"In the living room peeling skins" (close-up), 2025, Reclaimed found wooden beam from a collapsed West Philadelphia home. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"You" (close-up), 2025, Reclaimed found windowpane from a collapsed West Philadelphia home. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"Fault Lines" (close up), 2025, Concrete, Glass, Dirt, Dandelion, clover, Goldenrod, Alfalfa. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"Fault Lines" (close up), 2025, Concrete, Glass, Dirt, Dandelion, clover, Goldenrod, Alfalfa. Photo Credit: Brandon Straus
"Fault Lines" (close up), 2025, Concrete, Glass, Dirt, Dandelion, clover, Goldenrod, Alfalfa. Photo Credit: Brandon Straus
"Fault Lines" (close up), 2025, Concrete, Glass, Dirt, Dandelion, clover, Goldenrod, Alfalfa. Photo Credit: Brandon Straus
"Fault Lines" (close up), 2025, Concrete, Glass, Dirt, Dandelion, clover, Goldenrod, Alfalfa. Photo Credit: Brandon Straus
Rae Helms
Rae Helms is an interdisciplinary artist whose work combines print media, glass, and sculpture to explore themes of loss, care, and time. By focusing on material poetics, Helms examines the intersection of ephemera and archival history. Their art highlights established systems while engaging with both reconstructed and deconstructed narratives that reflect our ever-changing ecosystem and the need for resilient futures.
Helms holds an MFA from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, a BFA in Printmaking, and a BA in Art History from California State University, Chico. Their work has been exhibited nationally in cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. In 2025, they received the Southern Graphics Council International Graduate Student Fellowship. Additionally, they have presented research at the Southern Graphics Council International and the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present, bridging their studio practice with critical discourse.