[1] Following his BFA degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and employment with the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, Helguera relocated to New York on the invitation of the Guggenheim Museum to join the department of education where he remained for eight years while beginning his career as an exhibiting artist.

In 2012, Helguera received a PhD degree from Kingston University in London, and refined his role as an educator with engagement by the Museum of Modern Art.

Helguera has been the recipient of numerous awards for his art and his ideas concerning social practice art, including the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation/Fideicomiso para la Cultura Mexico, Creative Capital, a Franklin Furnace Fellowship and most recently a Blade of Grass Award from the Rubin Museum in New York.

Helguera began exhibiting as an artist in Mexico City in 1998, and for the first time in New York at the Bronx Museum of Art as well as the Museo del Barrio in 2001.

Helguera has also authored over 18 publications including Education for Socially Engaged Art: A Materials and Techniques Handbook, The Pablo Helguera Manual of Contemporary Art Style, What in the World: A Museum’s Subjective Biography, The School of Panamerican Unrest, both in English as well as Spanish.