KÖNIG TELEGRAPHENAMT has opened ECLIPSE, a solo show with new works by French artist Reine Paradis. Born in 1989 and a graduate of the Gobelins School of Visual Communication in Paris, Reine Paradis has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 2012 – a city of cinema, stories, fantasies, and eternal self-reinvention. It provides the perfect environment for the creation of her works which include photography, painting, film, and sculpture.
Paradis’ process includes several steps, the first of which is the imagination of a scenario. From that vision, she creates a small, collaged maquette on paper. This maquette is used as a blueprint when she scouts for the perfect location to photograph a scene – the scouting process alone can take years. Once a location is found, Paradis designs and creates costumes, props, and her origami-influenced sculptures, which will all be part of the scene. With the help of a partner who shoots the images, Paradis stages herself as the main figure in the work, adding a performative dimension that is essential to her process – “living” the scene allows her to fully transmit her original vision. Unflinching in the face of extreme situations and shielded by a blond wig, she embodies another character as an extension of herself, through which she can experience an alternative life, if only momentarily.
My language is color. It’s not only a conduit for expression or for capturing a mood, it is me describing how I see the world.
Reine Paradis
Editing the photos is a meticulous process completed by Paradis herself, in a game of perspective and depth she projects her world onto ours, changing each individual tone of the image to fit within her minimalist color palette. One usually thinks of photography as a tool to capture reality. We should start from the opposite assumption in the scenes of Reine Paradis. The resulting self-portraits bear witness of her imagination while transporting the viewer binto a perfect frame of her world.
In the same rigorous spirit as her photographic works, Paradis creates paintings that are deeply rooted in memories and places while exploring the simplicity of the language of her surreal universe. Additionally, she transforms some of the origami props from her images into neon-translucent uranium glass sculptures—another dimension to Paradis’ multimedia approach.
Through the use of these different mediums, Paradis is able to create a world that exists in reality and imagination simultaneously. The use of reflective and transparent materials in her works obscures, reflects, and absorbs light while creating an aurora-like barrier –one that can hide but also illuminate. ECLIPSE, her newest series of works, is an audacious dive into Paradis’ mind, inviting viewers to witness her inexhaustible quest to transcend boundaries.
The award-winning feature film QUEEN OF PARADIS (Amazon Prime, 2020) follows Paradis on a journey across the United States to complete her previous series MIDNIGHT. The film captures her process from beginning to end in a dramatic adventure that peels the curtain back on how Paradis creates her surreal images. A second feature film, PARADISLAND, which follows the making of the current series ECLIPSE, is set for release in the fall/winter of 2025 for a worldwide theatrical and streaming audience.
Reine Paradis Eclipse, 13th February – 15th March 2025 König Telegraphenamt
About the artist
Reine Paradis (b. 1989, France) lives and works in Los Angeles, California. She received a BA from the Gobelins School in Paris.
Known for her unmistakable use of color and outlandish process, Paradis’ work transmits across different mediums through the use of self-portrait photography, painting, performance, sculpture, and video. Through Paradis’ immersive multimedia installations, she examines the pathway between extrinsic realities and personal fantasies. Viewers are invited to cross the border into a colorful and candidly surreal landscape where surefooted perceptions are exchanged for a new artistic currency. Additionally, the use of reflective and transparent material within Paradis’ works obscure, reflect, and absorb light while creating an aurora-like barrier — one that can hide but also illuminate.
Reine Paradis is exhibited internationally and she has been the subject of solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, Paris, Miami, Mexico City, Denver and New York. Her work has been featured in publications such as Courrier International, i-D Magazine, Madame Figaro, Vogue, The Guardian, Artillery mag, LA Weekly, , Ideat Magazine, Flaunt Magazine, Aesthetica Magazine, Juxtapoz Magazine, Plastik Magazine, Philosophie Magazine, Vice Creators Project.
The feature documentary “Queen of Paradis” (2020, Amazon Prime) peels back the curtain on the creation of her recent series, “Midnight,” unveiling the bold process that fuels her artistic expeditions. A sequel film “Paradisland,” (Coming Fall/Winter 2024) will dive deeper into the mind of Paradis as she travels the world to complete her ambitious new body of work “Eclipse.”
