Eva Helene Pade's Monumental Paintings Debut at TEFAF New York

Danish painter Eva Helene Pade, born 1997, presents three new works—Jagt (Hunt), Nærmere (Closer), and Opstand (Surge)—at Thaddaeus Ropac's booth at TEFAF New York this week. The paintings, created in a borrowed London studio while her Paris home undergoes renovations, continue her exploration of crowds, ecstasy, and violence. Pade, who earned a BFA from the Danish Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 2021 and an MFA in 2024, signed with Ropac in 2024 as the gallery's youngest represented artist. Her work recently set an auction record at Christie's Hong Kong in March 2025, with an untitled 2022 painting selling for nearly $130,000 against an estimate of $38,000–64,000. Pade's sinuous, large-scale canvases—often eight by nine feet—depict nude female bodies in nocturnal, ambiguous terrains, influenced by Edvard Munch, James Ensor, Gustav Klimt, and choreographer Pina Bausch. Her London debut at Ropac's Ely House, "Søgelys" (Search Light), followed her institutional debut at ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art in Ishøj, Denmark, in spring 2025. The new TEFAF works feature smoky hues and blue-green shadows, exploring darkness and phosphenes, with hunting imagery referencing Alexandre-François Desportes. Pade's paintings are exhibited in the round, suspended in freestanding metal posts, allowing viewers to navigate the crowd-like compositions.