Mercedes Helnwein was born in Vienna as the daughter of the Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein. She lived in Vienna until 1985, when she moved to Germany with her family. Since 1997 she lives in Tipperary, Ireland and Downtown Los Angeles, USA.
Mercedes Helnwein has been writing and drawing since her youth. When she was 13 years old, the German feminist magazine Emma published her comic strip "Die Männer schlagen zurück" (The men fight back). In her pictorial work, Mercedes Helnwein primarily devotes herself to large-format drawing with pencil, colored pencil, ink and pastel on paper. She also works in watercolour and oil technique.
In her videos she works on similar themes as in her drawings: People in absurd and mysterious situations. In 2004 she founded the publishing house "Devil's Porchlight Press" together with the American artist Alex Prager. After several stories and short stories her novel "The Potential Hazards of Hester Day" was published in 2008.
In 2010 Damien Hirst acquired all the works of her exhibition "Whistling Past the Graveyard" at the A Gallery in London.
