2004 The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco organizes the first one-person exhibition of Gottfried Helnwein at an American Museum: "The Child, works by Gottfried Helnwein" at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.
The show is seen by almost 130,000 visitors and the San Francisco Chronicle quotes it the most important exhibition of a contemporary artist in 2004. Steven Winn, Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic, wrote: "Helnwein's large format, photo-realist images of children of various demeanors boldly probed the subconscious. Innocence, sexuality, victimization and haunting self-possession surge and flicker in Helnwein's unnerving work" ...

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

First Exhibition of Helnwein's Landscapes under the title "Irish and other Landscapes"at the Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork, Ireland.
"The Times"(UK) comments on the show:"...these photo-paintings appear even more real than a photograph: they are hyper-real, super-saturated depictions of the world that surrounds us, as we would like to see it. Helnwein’s landscapes offer us the world as we see it in our mind’s eye, our memories.
What is certain is that with these works Helnwein has raised the bar for artists to come with art that is groundbreaking in terms of scale, skill and vision. Painted mountains, fields and sky can never be the same again." ...

2003 Premiere of the Helnwein documentary "Ninth November Night" at the Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles.

Museum of Tolerance / Simon Wiesenthal Center

Production of "Ninth November Night".
The documentary. Children and the Holocaust in the art of Gottfried Helnwein.
Director: Henning Lohner
Commentators: Sean Penn, Maximilian Schell, Jason Lee
Introductory text by Simon Wiesenthal
Camera: Jason Lee, Darren Rydstrom, Bernd Reinhardt

20-by-60 foot outdoor installation “Modern Sleep 2003” at the L.A. Artshow 2003, Santa Monica.

"Paradise Burning," one man show, Modernism Gallery, San Francisco .

Galerie der Stadt Stuttgart, "Meisterwerke der Fotografie: Face to Face," group show.

Ludwig Múzeum Budapest – Kortárs Mûvészeti Múzeum, Az Essl Gyûjtemény, "Human Stories", group show.

The University of Arizona Museum of Art, "Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation".

2002 Helnwein establishes a studio in downtown Los Angeles.
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Helnwein works on a series of American landscapes, first work "Death Valley I" (Death Valley, California, 120x774 cm).

"Downtown" (The American paintings II), One man show at Modernism Gallery in San Francisco.

"In the Blink of an Eye - Photo Art", (Augenblick - Foto Kunst), group show.
Museum Kunst der Gegenwart, Collection Essl, Klosterneuburg/Vienna

Sean Penn visits Helnwein in his L.A, studio and invites him to join in a collaboration on several Film- and video projects. .
Beginning of the friendship with Sean Penn, who said in an interview: "Well, the world is a haunted house, and Helnwein at times is our tour guide through it. A lot of it is the way he's approached life. And it doesn't take someone knowing him to know that. You take one look at the paintings and you say "this guy has been around." You can't sit in a closet - and create this. This level of work is earned."
 ...

2001 Kilkenny Arts Festival, Ireland.
One man show at the Butler House and Installation in the city of Kilkenny at the annual Arts Festival, with large digital prints of children's faces and monochromatic blue scenes at the facades of houses in the medieval town center
"Ephiphany I", 8x12m (25x36 feet), on the wall of Kilkenny Castle. ...

Gottfried Helnwein at the Kilkenny Arts Festival 2001

Painting - Austrian Artists now..
Albertina, Vienna and the Museum of Fine Art, Budapest

Stage design and costumes for Strawinsky's "Rake's progress" at the State Opera in Hamburg (Hamburgische Staatsoper).
Director: Jurgen Flimm, coductor: Ingo Metzmacher ...

"Between Earth and Heaven, New Classical Movements in the Art of Today".
Museum of Modern Art, Oostende, Belgium. Installation "Fall of the Angels", digital print, 7X10m.