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The curator and commentator built a following for her online persona and satirical memes of the art world.
Hilde Lynn Helphenstein, the curator and art-world satirist widely known by the moniker Jerry Gogosian, has died at age 40. Police in Brazil have opened a “suspicious death” investigation after Helphenstein was found dead in a São Paulo hotel room on Sunday, May 31, as first reported by the local outlet Globo.
In a statement to Hyperallergic, a spokesperson for Rosewood São Paulo, a luxury hotel in the city’s Bela Vista district, confirmed that Helphenstein was found deceased in one of its rooms on Sunday afternoon.
“Since the incident, the hotel has provided full collaboration with the competent authorities, promptly providing all the information requested to assist in the investigation,” the spokesperson said, noting that the hotel would not comment further out of “respect for the privacy of the guest, their family members, and the work of the responsible authorities.”
A spokesperson for the city of São Paulo told Hyperallergic that police were investigating the death of a 40-year-old woman, but did not name Helphenstein or provide the cause of death in their statement.
Helphenstein maintained a following of nearly 150,000 on her popular Instagram account, where she began posting memes about the art world under the initially anonymous parody persona Jerry Gogosian in 2018. Seven years later, she announced that she was moving away from the satirical project. “I have so loved and enjoyed being Jerry, but it is time to let it go,” Helphenstein wrote in 2018.
Her short-form videos and posts that cut through the blue-chip market’s self-seriousness allowed her to expand her online footprint into a larger brand. In an interview with W magazine, Helphenstein said she aspired to be “the female Anthony Bourdain of the art world.”
In 2022, she curated an online show of works by emerging artists at Sotheby’s titled Suggested Followers: How the Algorithm is Always Right.
Helphenstein also hosted a contemporary art podcast, “Art Smack,” on Spotify, and moved the show to the creator subscription site Patreon last year. On various platforms, including a Substack blog, Helphenstein publicly discussed art-sector politics, industry friendships, and her personal struggles with depression. According to her website, she was also pursuing an MBA at New York University.
Hyperallergic has reached out to a press contact for Helphenstein for comment.
