1996 Helnwein works on the photo-series "Poems".
a series of photographic pictures of people who have died a violent death
He photographs the photographs of dead people and again and again photographs the photographs of the photographs ultimately to the point of dissolution. ...

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, photography selected from the museum collection. group show.

Helnwein starts the painting cycle "Epiphany".
"Epihany I" first exhibitied at Modernism Gallery San Francisco ...

Collectors and founders of many museums, Peter and Irene Ludwig, pay several visits to Helnwein's studio at Schloss Burgbrohl.
They acquire over 100 works of art from Helnwein, amogst them "Head of a Child" (Kindskopf), "48 Portraits and Dresden, and comission Helnwein to paint their portraits for the State Russian Museum St. Petersburg. ...

Set and costumes for "Pasolini" at the Schauspielhaus theatre in Hamburg;.
directed by Hans Kresnik. ...

One-man show in the Fine Arts Museum, Otaru, Japan. Installation "Neunter November Nacht".
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1995 Group exhibition at Ludwig Museum Schloss Oberhausen: "Versuche zu trauern" ("Trying to Mourne").
master pieces from the Ludwig Collection from antiquity to the present day.

Michael Jackson quotes some of Helnwein's art-works in the "History"album.
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Installation "Ninth November Night - Selektion" in Berlin, Kulturbrauerei..

Installation of a picture of a monochromic blue face of 25x16 metres (75x50 feet) in Vienna on a building in the city centre.

"It's only Rock and Roll", Phoenix Museum of Art, Arizona.
Rock and Roll Currents in Contemporary Art
Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
Lakeview Museum of Arts and Science, Peoria, Illinois
Nexus Contemporary Arts Center, Atlanta, Georgia
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Cleveland

"Faces" one-man show, Houston Centre for Photography..
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1994 "Faces" one-man show in the Centre International Contemporain d'Art in Montreal..

Helnwein meets Martin Kippenberger in Cologne.
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One man show - Mittelrhein-Museum Koblenz, Koblenz.

Helnwein meets Arnold Schwarzenegger in Los Angeles.
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Helnwein travels with Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley to Budapest.
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Helnwein works on the "Fire"- series.
a series of dark monochrome paintings with the faces of Arthur Rimbaud, Jim Morrison, Malcolm X, Mishima, Mayakovski, Rosa Luxemburg, Ulrike Meinhof and others.

One-man show in the Städtisches Museum, Schleswig.

"Das Jahrzehnt der Malerei" (The Decade of Painting).
Austrian Artists of the Schömer Collection, Vienna
in the Kunstverein, Augsburg, Germany.