Helena Parada Kim is the daughter of a Korean nurse who emigrated to Europe in the 1960s and a former Spanish monk. Born and raised in Germany, she grew up in a multicultural environment that sparked her desire to explore the culture, language, and history of her roots—particularly her mother’s Korean heritage. From an early age, she studied the techniques of the European Old Masters and mastered traditional painting methods. During her studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Peter Doig, she began to draw inspiration from her mother’s photo albums—images of her childhood environment, post-war Korea, and people dressed in Hanbok. The Hanbok soon emerged as a central motif in her work, symbolizing cultural identity, dignity, and survival. In her Hanbok Series, the figures appear faded and blurred, echoing the fragility of memory and the aesthetics of old photographs. Heads and hands are only faintly defined, while the garments dominate the canvas, transforming into abstract, almost sculptural forms that both portray and commemorate their wearers. Through this visual language, Parada Kim creates a dialogue between remembrance and abstraction, tradition and transformation. Her painterly approach, rooted in the legacy of Western Old Masters, bridges Eastern and Western aesthetics, making cultural hybridity both subject and method of her art.Helena Parada Kim has recently presented a solo exhibition at CHOI&CHOI Gallery in Seoul and an institutional duo exhibition at Braunsfelder in Cologne. In 2024, her exhibition at the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne received wide critical recognition. She maintains a long-standing collaboration with CHOI&CHOI Gallery, with joint projects across Europe and repeated presentations in Korea.