Eva Helene Pade

Danish
b. 1997

Art history stands as a point of departure for Danish-born, Paris-based artist Eva Helene Pade. Her paintings draw upon a lineage of Northern European figurative artists, including Edvard Munch, James Ensor and Otto Dix in her investigation of the complexities of human relationships.

In her compositions, dreamlike, open-ended narratives are fused with a sense of the mythological. Described by Pade as a ‘surrender to the more metaphysical parts of the paintings,’ her work pushes beyond the figurative towards the transcendental as she proposes a new painterly approach to depicting female embodiment today. 

Represented as a site of empowered agency, the female body is central to her practice. Starting as ‘coordinates’ on the canvas, her figures emerge from layer upon layer of paint into clusters and crowds, or are singled out from these configurations in meditative depictions of individuals. Their faces stare out defiantly from the canvases, materialising from fluid compositions or dissolving into rich, jewel-toned strokes of paint. Full-length, interlocking figures dominate indeterminate sites, often appearing not only expressionless but featureless or entirely covered – emotion conveyed through their stance or contortion. Limbs connect or multiply with resonating blurred edges and areas of the cotton canvas are left exposed, inviting myriad readings. These forms extend a sense of the self beyond the body and open up spaces with which she ‘allows for the connections we all have. Where you have the sacrifice, dreams and hopes.’

Eva Helene Pade received her BFA and MFA from The Danish Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 2024. In April 2025, ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, Ishøj, staged the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition, curated by Rasmus Stenbakken. Since then, she has undertaken a residency at the Opéra national de Paris (2025) and been nominated for the Reiffers Arts Initiatives Prize (2026). Her work will be included in a group exhibition at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Venice, in 2026, and will be the subject of a solo exhibition at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, in 2027. Eva Helene Pade’s work is held in the permanent collections of public institutions worldwide, including, in Europe, the Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; in the United States, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, and Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas; and in Asia, M+ Hong Kong, and Space K, Seoul, among many others.

Solo Exhibitions

2027

Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy

 

2025

Søgelys, Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK

Forårsofret, ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, Skovvej, Denmark

 

2022

Moment of Transitions, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

2021

A Story To Be Told, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, BFA degree show, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

 

Group Exhibitions

2026

Opéra national de Paris, Paris, France

Don’t have hope, be hope!, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Venice, Italy

TRAFIQUER L'INCONNU, Reiffers Arts Initiatives, Paris, France

 

2024

Embodied Forms, Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK

Yours Truly, Nahmad Contemporary, New York, USA

 

2023

Dieci, Artuner, Turin, Italy

 

2022

Zeitgeist, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

2021

MISA Discoveries, König Galerie, Berlin, Germany

Længsel, Collaborations, Copenhagen, Denmark

“Uno, Nessuno, Centomila”, Palazzo Capris, Turin, Italy
Forårsudstillingen, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

2020

Charity auction with donations to Queer Art, NY curator group Sunday Studios, NY, USA

Opgør, CHART, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

2019

Rundgang 2019, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark

Førsteårsudstilling, Galleri Q, Copenhagen, Denmark

Summertime’19, Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, Denmark

XMAS’19, Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

2018

Førsteårsudstilling, Galleri Q, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

2017

PORTRAIT NOW!, Ljungbergmuseum, Ljungby, Sweden

PORTRAIT NOW!, The Museum of National History, Hillerød, Denmark

 

Public Collections

 

China

Longlati Foundation, Shanghai

M+, Hong Kong

 

Denmark

Arken Museum of Contemporary Art, Ishøj

 

France

FAMM, Mougins

 

Italy

Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin

 

Norway

Astrup Fearnley, Oslo 

Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker

 

South Korea

Space K, Seoul 

 

Sweden

Moderna Museet, Stockholm 

 

UK

Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 

 

USA

ICA Miami, Florida

Nerman Museum, Kansas 

 

Awards

2017

The Young Talent prize, Carlsberg Foundation