Jamil Hellu

Originally from Brazil, Jamil Hellu is a lens-based artist whose work investigates representations of identity and sexuality. Moving from traditional photography and incorporating video, installations, and screen-printing, his practice draws from the potential of image-making to convey personal narratives while exploring the construction and multiplicity of cultural identities.

His recent works bring the friction between Arab ethnicity and gay identity into focus, considering the conflicts that emerge at the intersection of Middle-Eastern heritage and queerness.

Hellu holds a Masters in Fine Arts in Art Practice from Stanford University and a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute. He was awarded the 2018 Eureka Fellowship by the Fleishhacker Foundation. Hellu was selected for the Kala Art Institute Fellowship in Berkeley and the Artist-in-Residence Program at Recology in San Francisco. He received the Graduate Fellowship Award at Headlands Center for the Arts and was a resident artist at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.

Hellu has served on the board of the Artist-in-Residency Program at Recology since 2014. Most recently, he was selected for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Fellowship in its inaugural cohort of Fellows created to instigate community transformation through arts and culture.