Eva Helene Pade

The Great Women Artists

Katy Hessel

Arts

4.8 • 944 Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is one of the most exciting young painters working today, Eva Helene Pade. Born in Denmark in 1997, and based in Paris – where we are recording today – Pade is known for her rich and emotionally-charged, large-scale canvases populated with figures that morph in and out of abstraction. Often set in a dreamworld that can feel akin to being lost in a dance or state of unconsciousness, with fiery blazes and dark intense shadows, Pade’s paintings exist in places beyond the realm of our world. They are full of ambiguity: as a viewer, you are unaware of whether they are in day or night, heaven or hell, if the figures are male or female, or set in an ancient world or contemporary life. Stylistically, Pade seems to borrow from a lineage of Northern European figurative artists, from Edvard Munch to Otto Dix, creating work akin surrealism or expressionism: artistic movements born out of a time of political tumult, yet exude freedom and liberation in their subject and handling of paint. This creates an interesting conversation about the state of the world vs then, and now. But she also goes further, imbuing her work with ancient stories and figures – such as Eve or maybe Ophelia – and stories, such as Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, a ballet she was inspired by after seeing a performance choreographed by Pina Bausch, the influential German dancer. And like Bausch, Pade was drawn to rework the story from a female lens, which served as the foundation for her first ever museum show at Arken Denmark, opening just a year after she graduated from The Danish Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen… Today, we meet Pade in her Paris studio on a very hot day ahead of a new exhibition of paintings that opens at Thaddeaus Ropac in London in October, and I can’t wait to find out more… Exhibition: https://ropac.net/exhibitions/764-eva-helene-pade-sgelys/ -- THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: https://www.famm.com/en/ https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic Music by Ben Wetherfield

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome back to season 14 of the Great Woman Artist podcast. I'm so thrilled to be bringing you a fantastic series featuring conversations with artists, writers, curators and more. Just before I introduce our sponsor, I am very excited to let you know that I have written a new book. How to Live an Artful Life is out on the 6th of November
0:22.2	2025 and features a quote by an artist or writer for every day of the year. Think Tracy
0:28.6	Emin to Marino Abramovich, Zadie Smith to Ali Smith, Nan Golden to Hilton Al's, plus historical
0:34.5	writers and artists too. In the book, they offer us advice from how to slow down and pay
0:40.1	attention to daily routines and putting ideas into action. Each month takes on a different theme.
0:46.1	For example, January is about where do ideas come from? February is all about love and passion.
0:51.9	August is about beauty. November is about memory. December is about
0:55.7	joy. Because in a world where it seems that so many of us forget to look anymore, we can learn from
1:01.2	those who do. And to help the reader feel like they can apply the artist's word to their life,
1:06.6	I've written a short response to each entry to help guide and inspire you throughout the year.
1:11.9	And I've linked to where you can pre-order it from in the show notes.
1:14.8	And now for our sponsor, I am thrilled to say that this series is supported by the Levitt Collection,
1:20.7	a vast and varied art collection, which in the last eight years has become entirely focused
1:26.3	on works by women artists.
1:28.6	You can find much of this, made up of Impressionists, abstract expressionists, contemporary artists
1:33.7	and more, at FAM in Mujan, France, the first private museum in mainland Europe, devoted
1:40.0	entirely to female artists, spearheaded by Christian Levitt, who has published three research
1:46.0	books in this area. Recently, they launched The Levitt Letter, a monthly subscription-based letter,
1:52.3	advising collectors and dealers on the future trends in this specific art market.
1:57.5	Subscribers to the Levitt Letter also become members of the Levit Lounge, a community where
2:02.5	Christine shares his valuable insights and expertise, and gives subscribers direct access to visiting
2:08.4	Levitt's home in Florence and Mujan and the monthly webinar. Across all of these platforms,
	...

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