EDGING FORM
25 June - 25 July 2026
Artist Statement
“I like my paintings to show the history of making, to become activated through the process of reworking. Accumulated layers are built up; rhythm and impulse guiding the drawn line across the surface as I choreograph form. My process is intuitive and felt. It responds to an internal psychological and emotional landscape that is expressed through physicality and spontaneity. This momentum imbues the painting with a kind of life force.”
Celebrating her 40th year of making art in 2026, Ildiko Kovacs is one of Australia’s leading contemporary painters. Her practice is renowned for paintings that, whilst grounded in her sense of the Australian landscape, are at the same time deeply personal meditations on her life and emotions. Alive with energy and movement, the surface of Kovacs’ works are known for their sensual flowing line played against passages of consummate mark-making. Washes of underpainting reveal themselves from beneath layers of colour, while Kovacs’ elegant and bold lines dictate the movement of our gaze across the picture plane.
She has shown in number of significant solo and group exhibitions and has been a finalist in notable prizes including the Sir John Sulman and Wynne Prizes, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, and was the winner of the prestigious Bulgari Art Award (2015). Her work is held in numerous significant collections; notably the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, NSW; Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, NSW; National Gallery of Victoria, VIC; Bathurst Regional Gallery, NSW; and various private collections in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States of America, France, and Italy.