Helga Roht Poznanski (b. 1927, Tartu, Estonia) is a watercolorist, painter, and fashion designer who expresses a strong sense of color, composition, and spatial architectonics in her prolific practice. Poznanski fled Estonia in 1944 for fear of Soviet repression, moving to Austria, Canada, New York, and ultimately Boston, where she graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

She speaks here about working every day, fleeing Russian forces, staying original, and why there's no life without art.

Poznanski is one of four featured artists included in the 2019 James and Audrey Foster Prize exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. On view is a selection of recent abstract and colorful collagelike watercolors characterized by a complex pictorial space, with nested and overlapping forms, windows and portals, moons and suns, evoking fractured views of a cityscape. Learn more at icaboston.org.