Helena Parada Kim

Born to a Korean nurse and a Spanish immigrant worker, Parada Kim was brought up in Cologne, Germany. Deeply touched by photographs featuring Korean nurses dispatched to Germany in her mother’s photo album, she began tackling subject matters such as Korean nurses, ancestral rites, and especially ‘hanbok,’ exploring the personal stories pertaining to this traditional dress. The hanbok in her paintings ushers viewers to a specific era and moment, extending the arena of exploration to collective history. The artist’s interest in plants and gardening went hand in hand with her desire to paint them. The water lilies as well as the dandelion, rhododendron and hollyhocks which are depicted in her paintings are almost banal plants in their ubiquity. But it is precisely their supposed mundanity that provides the particular stimulus for the painter to extract the mysterious and almost inscrutable qualities from these plants. Helena Parada Kim (1982-) studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, graduating as a Meister student of Peter Doig. She has had a number of solo exhibitions including ‘CACHÉ’(CHOI&LAGER Gallery, Cologne, 2021), ‘Wasser, Portraits, Schatten’(Neue Galerie Galdbeck, Gladbeck, 2019), and ‘Ausencias’(Centro Cultural Coreano, Madrid, Spain, 2018), and has participated in various group exhibitions including ‘MIND·FULL·NESS’ (Villa de Parnell, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, 2022), ‘FLOWER’(CHOI&CHOI Gallery, Seoul, 2022), ‘Korean Eye 2020’(Lotte Museum of Art, Seoul, 2020), and ‘Please return to Busan Port’(Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen, Norway, 2016). Parada Kim lives and works in Berlin. 독일 베를린에 거주하며 활동하고 있는 헬레나 파라다 김은 이민 1세대인 한국인 간호사 어머니와 스페인 아버지 사이에서 태어나 독일을 쾰른에서 자랐다. 다양한 정체성과 문화적인 배경 속에서 성장한 헬레나는 우연히 보게 된 어머니의 옛 앨범 속 파독 간호사들의 모습에서 영감을 받게 되었고, 이후 어머니의 나라인 한국의 역사와 문화에 대해 큰 관심을 가지기 시작 하면서 파독 간호사, 한복, 제사 등의 한국적인 소재들을 자신의 작품에 담아내기 시작했다. 특히 그녀는 누군가가 입었던 ‘전통 한복’이 지니는 서정적이면서도 개인적인 스토리를 주제로 다양한 연작을 제작했다. 그의 그림 속에 등장하는 한복 은 한 개인의 역사에 대한 탐구에서 시작하여 집단의 역사로 확장되었던 특정한 시대와 순간으로 관람객들을 인도한다. 또한 몇 년 전부터 베를린 작업실 뒤에 방치된 정원을 우연히 돌보기 시작한 작가는 자연을 다룬 정물화에 심취해 다양한 식물과 꽃들이 주는 분위기를 캔버스에 옮긴다. 이 아름다운 정물화들은 피고 지는 꽃처럼 아름답지만 동시에 그 끝이 존재하는 우리의 삶에 대한 명상을 이끌어 낸다. 헬레나 파라다 김(1982-)은 뒤셀도르프 쿤스트아카데미에서 미술을 전공하며 피터 도이그의 마이스터 쉴러로서 수석 졸업했다. 그는 'CACHE'(초이앤라거 갤러리, 쾰른, 2021), 'Water, Portraits, Shadows'(글라드백미술관, 글라드백, 2019), 'Ausencias'(한인문화센터, 마드리드, 2018) 등 다수의 개인전을 개최했으며, 'MIND·FULL·NESS'(빌라 드 파넬, 용인, 2022), 'FLOWER'(초이앤초이 갤러리, 서울, 2022), 'Korean Eye 2020'(롯데미술관, 서울, 2020), '돌아와요 부산항에’(베스트포센 미술관, 노르웨이, 2016) 등 다양한 단체전에 참여하였다. 파라다 김은 현재 베를린에서 거주하며 작업 활동 중이다. Born in 1982, Cologne, Germany Lives and works in Berlin, Germany EDUCATION 2002 – 2009 Kunstakademie Düsseldorf 2005 – 2009 Student of Prof. Peter Doig 2009 Masterstudent of Prof. Peter Doig SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2023 Zwischenräume, Museum for East Asian Art, Cologne 2022 Helena Parada Kim, Galleria Patricia Armocida, Milano 2021 ‘CACHÉ’, Choi & Lager Gallery, Cologne ‘AQUILEGIA’, Villa Angeli Pegognaga, Italy 2019 ‘Wasser, Portraits, Schatten’ Neue Galerie Galdbeck, Gladbeck 2018 ‘Ausencias’, Centro Cultural Coreano, Madrid, Spain 2018 HELENA PARADA KIM & ANDREAS BLANK, CHOI&LAGER Gallery, Seoul, Korea 2016 Helena Parada-Kim with Gorka Mohamed, Choi&Lager Gallery, Cologne, Germany 2015 ‘In Mother ́s Hanbok’, Galerie Tristan Lorenz, Frankfurt a.M.,Germany 2010 ‘Helena Parada’, Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Düsseldorf, Germany 2009 ‘Die Gesandten’, Kunstverein Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen, Germany SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS (since 2010) 2023 HUMAN, CHOI&CHOI Gallery, 2023 From Berlin to Seoul: Crossing Horizons, CHOI&CHOI Gallery, HORI Artspace, AIF Lounge, Seoul and Bermel von Luxburg Gallery, Berlin 2022 FLOWER, CHOI&CHOI Gallery, Seoul Girl Meets Girl, Vestfossen Museum, Norway 2020 Korean Eye 2020, Seoul, Korea 2018 NON SENSE MUSIC # 2 - BORDERS, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin 2017 The king of table, entretempo Kitchen Gallery, Berlin The room of desires, raumwerk, Munich, Germany Weinosten, Hilbert Raum, Berlin 2016 ‘Please return to Busan Port’, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen, Norway (collaboration curated by Choi&Lager Gallery) Participation at Art Busan with Choi& Lager Gallery, Busan, Korea Participation at ‘Cofa(Cologne Fine Art)’ Art Fair with Choi& Lager Gallery, Cologne, Germany Works in the Penz Collection, Sammlung Penz, Berlin, Germany ‘Bab-Sang Story’, Entretempo Kitchen Gallery, Berlin, Germany 2015 ASIA NOW PARIS Asian Contemporary Platform, with Choi&Lager Gallery, Paris, France ‘Neujahrspunsch’, Galerie Tristan Lorenz, Frankfurt a.M., Germany Participation at Art Karlsruhe with Galerie Tristan Lorenz, Karlsruhe, Germany 2014 ‘Hängengeblieben’, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen, Germany Private and public Portrait-commissions 2012 ‘NO.1’ Kunstakademie Düsseldorf at Sky Office, curated by Julia Ritterskamp, Düsseldorf, Germany 2010 Participation at Art Cologne with Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Cologne, Germany ‘Self-Consciousness’ curated by Peter Doig and Hilton Als, Veneklasen and Werner, Berlin, Germany ‘Berlin Summer Interval’, Bugdahn and Kaimer, Düsseldorf, Germany ‘SHARED.DIVIDED.UNITED’, Kunstverein Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany 2009 SHARED.DIVIDED.UNITED Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin, Germany ‘Selected...continued’, Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Düsseldorf, Germany ‘Werke’, Staedtische Galerie Kaarst (group show), Germany 2008 Klasse Peter Doig in der Zeche Zollverein-Mischanlage, Essen, Germany ‘Woher kommen? Was sind wir? Wohin gehen wir?’, Galerie Arteversum, Düsseldorf, Germany 2007 Junge Düsseldorfer Maler, Kunsthalle Koblenz, Koblenz, Germany 2005 ‘Eine Woche junge Kunst’ im Mediapark 5, Cologne, Germany Maxims Art Award, Cologne, Germany 2004 1. Art Award of Kö-Galerie, Dusseldorf Lovells Art Award, Dusseldorf, Gemany 2002 ‘Passion’- vierzehn Kreuzwegstationen“ , Basilika St. Aposteln, Cologne, Germany COLLECTIONS Rathaus Düsseldorf IHK Düsseldorf Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach Rockefeller Foundation Bankhaus von Metzler Candida Höfer Stiftung