lldiko Kovacs wins the Bulgari Art Award 2015
Earlier today Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Michael Brand, announced IIdiko Kovacs as the recipient of the $80,000 BVLGARI Art Award for her painting Onda, 2015.
Discussing her winning work, Kovacs highlighted the source inspiration; “Onda means wave in Italian. My studio is close to the ocean and the sound of the waves is ever present.”
Head Curator of Australian Art Wayne Tunnicliffe said he is delighted to welcome this stunning work into the Art Gallery of NSW’s collection and is ever appreciative of Bulgari’s support of contemporary Australian painting. “I have long admired the gestural brilliance of Ildiko Kovacs and I’m thrilled to finally have an exceptional painting by her in our collection. Onda 2015 exemplifies the artist’s innate understanding of colour and line, and further strengthens the Gallery’s deep holdings of Australian abstract art,” Tunnicliffe said.
Famous for her grand wandering abstractions that are imbued by great energy and movement, Kovacs practice has a well-established understanding of line, colour and rhythm. Working with paint rollers upon large plywood boards, there is a note of lyricism in the continual movement within her work. Layered and as if a constant state of flux, intuition and her own emotional responses guide her practice.
Furthering on about her practiced she noted, “When I start to paint I try to enter a space where preconceptions fall away, relying on my intuition to bring the unseen into the seen. My process is reworking the surface many times leaving traces of history which dictates how the painting will evolve,” Kovacs said.
The fourth recipient of the annual award, previous winners include Daniel Boyd (2014), Jon Cattapan (2013) and Michael Zavros (2012). The award consists of a $50,000 painting acquisition for the Art Gallery of NSW and a residency in Italy valued at $30,000. Beginning in 2012, the award was launched by Bulgari in collaboration with the Art Gallery of NSW.
Bulgari Art Award 2015
Art Gallery of NSW
Image: Ildiko Kovacs Onda 2015, oil on plywood
Courtesy the artist and the Art Gallery of NSW
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