Hilda Kortei

Hilda Kortei, born in London, UK in 1994, graduated from the Arts University Bournemouth in 2015 with a Bachelor's degree in Design. Hilda is now completing a Master's degree in Painting at the Royal College of Art sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust Arts Scholarship and the Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship.

Based on personal experience, Hilda has developed a semiotic system of painting that is raw, playful and material-led. In her diverse and expressive practice of painting, assemblage and, more recently, performance, she continues to explore ideas around violence and survival, speaking to the intricacies of sociopolitical realities that permeate her daily existence. Each work poses questions about the physicality of colour, gesture, shape, and texture, where she looks for body, kinship and resilience, creating meaning in the material and immaterial.

Her works have been shown internationally and across the UK including her most recent group show at Tara Downs (New York), Plastic Stars (June 2023), her upcoming solo presentation at Harlesden High Street Gallery (London), Charlie, Let's go! (July 2023), and her solo exhibition at Cob Gallery (London), Waitless Beyond Blue (August 2021).

Spirit lives within inanimate objects.

I paint with intent – to inject life into symbols and shapes. I give them meaning, and they create their own.

All matter – whether it's paint in all its grace or discards found by the side of the road which I accept as gifts from my community – pulsates with life. They have agency – together we shape each other – a form of co-becoming. I cast and carve them to our liking, letting gestures of tenderness sit amongst clumps of flesh.

Inflicted are my circumstances that bleed into their making. I act instinctively – it is with my gut, we feed ourselves anew.

With pigment we resurrect – I am free to roam, connect and transform, bringing to existence endless possibilities. 

And with this, I have something to believe in – new worlds and new realities – I return to play, the basis of my practice and what gives impetus to survive.