Helga Stentzel is a visual artist born in Siberia (Russia) and currently based in London, whose work has generated great impact for its peculiar style that she calls “domestic surrealism”. Trained at the Omsk State Institute of Technology and later completed a degree in Graphic Design and Advertising at the prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Before she turned to art, Stentzel worked as an art director in the advertising world and also founded a children’s clothing business.

The essence of his work lies in taking everyday items -clothes, kitchen utensils, food products, bread, books- and transforming them into surreal characters and scenes. Thanks to his observant gaze, he creates optical illusions where, for example, a hanging T-shirt becomes the structure of a horse, or slices of bread on a dog’s head. Her inspiration comes from a pure form of “watching without expectations”: as she has said herself, as a child I spent hours contemplating simple things-like her grandmother’s carpet or tree trunks-looking for recognizable forms.

Throughout his career, Stentzel has explored a wide variety of media: he works with photography, illustration, video, stop-motion animation, sculpture and mural design. Thanks to this versatility and its original vision, it has been recognized with awards such as the Snackable Content Awards for “Food Art Creator of the Year” in 2020. In addition, in 2023 she received the title of Hasselblad Heroine, and has been awarded the Public Choice Award at NordArt (Germany) in 2025.

His works have also been exhibited internationally: his exhibitions include a solo show at the CCOC Art Museum in Seoul, participation in fairs such as The Other Art Fair in London and New York, and presence at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London. Through his art, Stentzel invites to rediscover the magic in everyday life, connecting with people’s “inner child” and encouraging them to see beauty in the imperfect and seemingly trivial.