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Aida Tomescu
Messiaen 2013
oil and pigments on canvas
184.0 x 154.0 cm
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In Tomescu’s paintings the sheer physicality of paint, its density
and the
Archaeology of the layers, its application and movement across the
surface,
is inseparable from the content.
Deborah Hart, Senior Curator, National
Gallery of Australia.
Considered one of Australia’s foremost abstract painters,
Aida Tomescu’s solo exhibition showcasing a suite of eight major paintings and
works on paper opens at the newly re-launched Flinders Lane premises of Karen
Woodbury Gallery.
There
is always a distinct tenor and character to each of Tomescu’s exhibitions, and
the high energy of her recent body of work brings at once a feeling of vitality and radiance.
The persistent searching line of
Tomescu's drawing has invaded her larger paintings. Congeries of lines ravel
and unravel in paintings like Goldfields
and Messiaen, probing deep into the
surface of the work, lending depth and substance and striking up a new direction, at once intense and playful. In contrast, the downpours of thin paint lash out in
paintings such as El Nino or La Nina. Yet, while they preserve a feeling
of utmost spontaneity they are the result of repeated build up and erasure, of
rigorous appraisal, modification and a relentless questioning of the image.
It is thirty three years since Aida Tomescu arrived in
Australia. Born in Bucharest, Romania in 1955, Aida Tomescu studied at the
Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest and at the City Art Institute in Sydney.
Anne Lewis first showed Tomescu’s work at the seminal
Gallery A in Sydney in 1983, and when that venue closed, she moved to the
Coventry Gallery. With over thirty solo shows to date, Tomescu is one of
Australia’s most distinctive and well respected artists. In 2009, a major
survey exhibition was held at the Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National
University, Canberra. Aida Tomescu is the winner of a host of prestigious art
prizes, including the Sulman Prize, the Wynne prize and the Dobell Prize for
Drawing by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Tomescu’s work is well represented in the major museums,
regional, university and corporate collections including the National Gallery
of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art
Gallery of South Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, Heide Museum of Modern Art,
Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand and the British Museum, London
For further information, interview with Aida Tomescu and
images please contact:
Karen Woodbury T: 03 9639 5855 M: 0417 127
917 E: info@kwgallery.com
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