About the artist

Helen Couchman moved to London in 1991, where she completed a BA in Fine Art at Sir John Cass (1996) and an MA in Critical Fine Art Practice at Central St Martins (1998). She was more recently invited to pursue a period of post graduate research at Chelsea.

Couchman has exhibited widely, both in the United Kingdom and internationally, often producing new bodies of work during residencies. Amongst these are Cyprus (2003), Vermont (2005), China (2006) and Taiwan (2016).

Moving to live in Beijing in early 2007, Couchman published her first book, WORKERS 工人, in June 2008. Portraits from the series have been exhibited in London (2008), Hong Kong (2008) and Beijing (2012). Couchman’s second book, Mrs West’s Hats, was published at the end of 2009 and her third book, Omani Women نساء عمانيات. was published in late 2015.

Couchman’s solo exhibitions also include Mrs West’s Hats, Yerevan, Armenia (2004) Gift, Beijing (2006) and There was no single reason for me to be there at first, London (1999). She had an exhibition of the series Omani Women نساء عمانيات at Gallery Sarah, Bait Al Zubair Museum, Muscat, Oman in late 2015. The artist has contributed to a number of group exhibitions, including The Artful Scriptorium, New York, (2010), There and Everywhere, London (2009), China in Motion, London (2008), Solutions for a Modern City, Hong Kong (2008), Future Landscapes, Shrewsbury, UK (2005), Uncommon Ground, Sway, UK (2004), Sodium Blindness, London (2000), find(found), London (1997), Contemporary Chinoiserie,  London (2008) and most recently Epoch (2017) a retrospective exhibition of her Beijing work at CFCCA, the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Art in Manchester.

Helen Couchman MA FRGS

2008 – 2013 PhD research. Chelsea College of Art, UAL, London
1996 – 1998 MA Critical Fine Art Practice. Central Saint Martins College of Art, UAL, London
1993 – 1996 BA Fine Art. The Cass, Sir John Cass College of Art, London

Residencies

2017 CFCCA, Centre for Contemporary Chinese Art, Manchester, UK
2016 TAV, Taipei Artists Village, Taiwan
2012 – 2013 UAL/Parsons The New School, New York City, U.S.
2006 – 2012 Beijing, China
2005 Photography Fellowship to VSC, Vermont Studio Center, U.S.
2004 Yerevan, Armenia
2003 Cyprus College of Art

Organisations

2014 – Invited Fellow of the RGS, Royal Geographical Society, London
2011 – 2012 Nominated to board of the FCCC, Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China