Iris Helena was born in João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil, in 1987, and lives and works in Brasília. A multidisciplinary visual artist, she holds a degree in Visual Arts from the Federal University of Paraíba, a Master’s in Contemporary Poetics from the University of Brasília, and is currently a PhD candidate in Visual Arts at the same institution.

Working across photography, video, installation, objects, interventions, and everyday materials, Helena develops a critical, philosophical, and poetic investigation of the urban landscape. Using images of the city and fragile or ordinary supports such as paper, bookmarks, medication blister packs, and other objects of daily consumption, she explores memory, ruin, erasure, instability, territory, and transformation. Her works displace urban imagery onto unexpected surfaces, bringing together archive, trace, and imagination to reconstruct collective and subjective experiences.

Her exhibitions include Achados & Perdidos and Marcadores at Portas Vilaseca Galeria, Rio de Janeiro; Práticas de Arquivo Morto — Notas at Caixa Cultural São Paulo; Paraísos Fiscais at Zipper Galeria; Colección Al Límite, Sin Límites at Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Santiago; MUAMBA: Brazilian Traces of Movement in London; and the 33rd Exhibition Program of Centro Cultural São Paulo.

She won PIPA Online in 2018 and received the FOCO Bradesco ArtRio Award in 2017. Her work is held in collections including Museu de Arte do Rio — MAR; the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection / MAM Rio; Instituto PIPA; the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Itamaraty; SESC João Pessoa; and FUNJOPE.