Hilde Lynn Helphenstein, the artist and curator behind the popular Jerry Gogosian Instagram account, has died. Helphenstein, who was aged forty, was found dead in a São Paulo hotel room.
With prescription drugs present at the scene, the death was registered as suspicious by the 78th Police Station in the Brazilian city and the country’s Institute of Forensic Medicine has been notified. After a man identifying himself as Helphenstein’s cosmetic surgeon came to the reception, the man having not being able to get hold of his patient, staff at the Rosewood Hotel in the central Jardins neighbourhood let themselves into her room. She had been in Brazil for three weeks.
Having previously ran a Los Angeles art gallery, Helphenstein launched the Jerry Gogosian Instagram account in 2018, accumulating 145,000 followers. Often sassy or sarcastic in tone, Helphenstein would pair found images from films, TV series and other pop culture sources with captions relating to the trials and tribulations of operating in the 21st century artworld. A year ago she said she planned to ‘wind down’ the account, having ‘grown out of it’. Helphenstein also hosted the podcast Art Smack, published the Jerry Report newsletter and had plans for a television show.
In 2024 she curated a sale of work by emerging artists, titled Suggested Followers: How the Algorithm is Always Right, for Sotheby’s digital platform; the same year she signed with United Talent Agency’s short-lived Fine Arts division.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.
