JJ
HELLERMAN

Portfolio

Selected work in expanded print, sculpture, and installation.

Instagram Reels Viewing Devices

Instagram Reels Viewing Devices

2026 · Bronze & pewter, resin, networked OLED screens · Series of 5
Apparatus II (Here For Carla Hayden)

Apparatus II (Here For Carla Hayden)

2025 · Steel; neodymium magnets; acrylic panels; LEDs on aluminium heatsinks; servo motors; Arduino microcontroller; wires; WAGO connectors; bench PSUs; synthetic fabric; vectorized digital images; the Library of Congress website; Bitcoin · Variable; here approx. 220 (H) × 350 (W) × 60 (D) cm
Fall of Icarus

Fall of Icarus

2025 · Laser prints on water-soluble paper; ice; bolts; fishing wire; nuts; heat · Variable; here approx. 250 (H) × 60 (W) × 30 (D) cm
Reliquary 004 (V&A)

Reliquary 004 (V&A)

2026 · 3D-printed reliquary, networked display system · 8 × 20 × 30 cm
BUGS

BUGS

2025 · Corrupted NFC cards; phone; the World Wide Web · 20 × 20 × 7.5 cm each
Apparatus I

Apparatus I

2025 · Steel, magnets, acrylic, digital prints on glassine and tracing paper · 70 × 70 × 120 cm
Reliquary 001

Reliquary 001

2025 · Laser-etched acrylic, modular steel table · Box 25 × 30 × 20 cm; table 50 × 70 × 90 cm
Reliquary 003 (Unidentified Iconographies)

Reliquary 003 (Unidentified Iconographies)

2025 · Wooden drawers, cast pewter, OLED screens · 30 × 8 × 8 cm
and you were there, too…

and you were there, too…

2024 · Opaque white screenprints on correx board; flashlights · Variable
A river is a transient thing

A river is a transient thing

2024 · Transfer prints using intaglio ink and plate oil on dissolvable embroidery fabric; ice · Variable

Research

Ongoing projects, tools, and lines of inquiry that sit alongside the studio work.

Web · live

Instagram Reels Mapping

A live, browsable map of how Instagram's algorithm carries you from one reel to the next; the data engine behind the Portable Instagram Reels Viewing Devices.

Web · tool

Artist Website + Portfolio Builder

A free tool that turns an artist's photos and writing into a shareable website and downloadable PDF portfolio.

Research

The Corporate Artist, The Artist as Corporation

The artist as an economic and institutional structure, drawing on the A.P.G. and E.A.T. research.

Research

Artificial Personhood

On legal, corporate, and technological constructions of personhood.

← Research

Instagram Reels Mapping

How does the algorithm carry you from one reel to the next? Instagram Reels Mapping records those paths and renders them as a browsable map, the data engine behind the Portable Instagram Reels Viewing Devices. The project turns an invisible, personalised feed into something you can hold and trace; it asks how algorithmic distribution shapes attention, and what survives when you try to archive the ephemeral.

Project materials

Instagram Reels Map
The live, interactive map. Opens with a quick email sign-in.
Instagram Reels Viewing Devices, 2026
The cast bronze and pewter sculptures with networked OLED screens that display the mapped feed.

Related writing

January 21, 2026On DLD and an Aesthetics of Digital Acceleration: Soft Retreats, Hyperdigitalism, Radical Empathy. January 30, 2026Reflection on Strategic AI Workshop w/ sea salt learning
← Research

Artist Website + Portfolio Builder

Can you streamline the process of making a website and portfolio? Art schools seem to hand you a formula; can an algorithm implement it? The Artist Website + Portfolio Builder takes an artist's photos and writing and returns a shareable website and a downloadable PDF portfolio. The tool also poses a question about authorship and standardisation: what happens once you automate the conventions of the art-school portfolio? Contact me with any feedback.

Project materials

Artist Portfolio Maker
The working builder. Upload your photos and text; the tool returns a formatted website and PDF.

Note: a private server stores the photos and keeps emails private. You can also make a site without storing anything, in which case the tool formats everything and hands it right back to you. To edit later, re-upload the folders in the ZIP file to the site.

Related writing

June 1, 2026The Artist as a Startup June 16, 2026Total Flow @ NEW INC
← Research

The Corporate Artist, The Artist as Corporation

The Corporate Artist, The Artist as Corporation treats the artist less as a single author and more as an economic and institutional structure. The project looks to historical experiments that placed artists inside industry and organisations: the Artist Placement Group (A.P.G.) and Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.). What does it mean to operate as, or inside, a corporation today?

Draft abstract; replace with your own wording.

Project materials

A.P.G. Research
Research into the Artist Placement Group and its model of placing artists within organisations.
E.A.T. Research
Research into Experiments in Art and Technology and its collaborations between artists and engineers.

Related writing

June 1, 2026The Artist as a Startup June 16, 2026Total Flow @ NEW INC
← The Corporate Artist

A.P.G. Research

Add an abstract for your Artist Placement Group research here.

Project materials

Add links to project materials, documents, or works. Tell me what you have and I'll wire them in.

Related writing

Add links to any blog posts that relate to this research.
← The Corporate Artist

E.A.T. Research

Add an abstract for your Experiments in Art and Technology research here.

Project materials

Add links to project materials, documents, or works. Tell me what you have and I'll wire them in.

Related writing

Add links to any blog posts that relate to this research.
← Research

Artificial Personhood

Artificial Personhood considers how law, corporations, and technology construct the person: the corporation that the law counts as a "person," the artificial intelligence trained to pass as one, the systems that increasingly act on our behalf. Who does the system count as a person, and who does it leave out?

Draft abstract; replace with your own wording.

Project materials

Add links to project materials, documents, or works. Tell me what you have and I'll wire them in.

Related writing

February 2, 2026Melanie Hoff Machinic Language Symposium @ UAL January 20, 2026Lawrence Lek Sinofuturism @ goldsmiths CCA August 29, 2024Between Worlds Podcast - Mike Walsh and Virginia Damtsa on AI and Art

Blog

Writing and reviews on exhibitions, technology, and contemporary art.

June 18, 2026Genuine Corinthian Dish, Unbreakable Glass June 16, 2026Reel Wall, v1 -> v2 June 16, 2026Total Flow @ NEW INC June 1, 2026The Artist as a Startup February 8, 2026How to Disappear Completely @ Safehouse 1, Peckham February 2, 2026Melanie Hoff Machinic Language Symposium @ UAL January 30, 2026Reflection on Strategic AI Workshop w/ sea salt learning January 27, 2026Shadwell Biennial w/ s4e6 & santi gallery January 21, 2026On DLD and an Aesthetics of Digital Acceleration: Soft Retreats, Hyperdigitalism, Radical Empathy. January 21, 2026Phreaking Collective's Bit Rot @ Copeland Gallery January 21, 2026Ted Le Swer "Soft Exit" @ Purist Gallery January 20, 2026Lawrence Lek Sinofuturism @ goldsmiths CCA September 1, 2025Sky High Farm Biennial: does it close the gap it reflects? July 18, 2025Owen Hatherley @ Barbican June 26, 2025Philip Beesley @ RCA March 3, 2025Mike Kelley @tate modern March 3, 2025Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening (the scent! of) Fashion @the Met September 23, 2024Phyllida Barlow "Unscripted" @hauser and wirth somerset September 20, 2024Conversations with Kafka August 29, 2024Annette Messager "Mes Voeux" @the Met August 29, 2024Between Worlds Podcast - Mike Walsh and Virginia Damtsa on AI and Art August 28, 2024Anselm Kiefer @Mass MoCa August 28, 2024Lotus L. Kang - In Cascades @Whitney Biennial

About

J. J. Hellerman, 3D scan portrait

J. J. Hellerman works as an artist-researcher, tracking how novel technologies alter the structures through which we communicate and archive.

Working across expanded print mediums (layered transparent prints, 3D-printed and sculptural forms, found and original imagery), she examines the material structures of archives and distribution systems, from the traditional codex and printing press to contemporary CNC fabrication, social media algorithms, AI, and blockchain.

By materialising the volatile architectures of the archive and the systems that carry it, Hellerman shifts focus from content to form, exposing a latent agency in the mechanisms that form, store, and communicate political myths.

Her practice bridges studio work and historiographic research, producing installations, prints, text, and curatorial projects. She currently lives in London and keeps ongoing projects in New York.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

2025M.A. in Print, Royal College of Art, London
2024Graduate Diploma, Royal College of Art, London
2023B.A. in Government & Classical Languages, Georgetown University

Exhibitions

2026Beyond is All Abyss, 140–142 Second Avenue, Suite 306, New York
2026A System at Scale, Three Rooms Gallery, London
2025Verifying Identity… Please Log In, A Space Gallery, New York
2025RCA Graduate Show, Design Bar, RCA Battersea, London
2025Fall of Icarus, Upper Gulbenkian Gallery, RCA Kensington, London
2025Rites of Ruins, Safehouse 1, London
2025In Betweens, Southwark Park Galleries, London
2024River East, Way Out East Gallery, London

Publications

2025Print Out: Material Intelligence
2024Bold Visionaries

Get in touch

For exhibitions, commissions, writing, and curatorial enquiries.

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