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Born in 1972 in Moscow, Russia


1998: MFA, Bard College, Annendale-on-Hudson, NY

1995: BFA, Bard College, Annendale-on-Hudson, NY



"This series of photographs titled Moscow Diaries is the culmination of my work as a visual artist entranced by the past and memory. While most of my work has been on motion picture film, the still photographs present my constant need to freeze a moment in time; to recapture the past and keep it to myself.

Having emigrated from Russia at the age of seven, almost eighteen years ago, I am constantly drawn to Russia as my subject. My purpose, not only with this series of photographs, but also of my work in film, has been to find the self I left behind all those years ago. I wander the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg on a constant lookout for myself or my mother in the form of strangers. That is whom I photograph, my past in the form of present strangers.

Having all the memories of my childhood wiped out in some sick self-defense mechanism, I am constantly aware of my need to recapture the memories that I have lost. This is my purpose. This is the language of my work: to find what I have lost, to make others see themselves in the sometimes lonely and desolate images, to find what we all at one time or another lose and can never find again."

HELLIN KAY, January 2001

  • Selected Solo Exhibitions
    • 1999: James Fuentes Gallery, New York, NY, Moscow Diaries

    • 1998:
        Austin Artists Collective, Austin, TX, Moscow Diaries

        Semyonavskaya Gallery, Moscow, Russia, Moscow & St. Petersburg

    • 1997:
        Capital Theater, Olympia, WA, Family Portraits

        ABC No Rio, New York, NY, Family Portraits

        Baltimore Film Forum at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD, Was Once a Girl


  • Selected Group Exhibitions
    • 1998:
        Milky World Gallery, Seattle, WA

        The Chocolate Factory, Rheinbeck, NY

        New Image Art, West Hollywood, CA

    • 1997:
        Orpheum, Baltimore, MD

        Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD

    • 1996: ABC No Rio, New York, NY

    • 1995:
        Milton Avery Arts Center, Annendale-on-Hudson, NY

        Black Center for Curatorial Studies, Annendale-on-Hudson, NY


  • Selection of works from Hellin Kay


    Read the guestbook of Hellin Kay

    Sign the guestbook of Hellin Kay