It is 33 years since Aida Tomescu arrived in Australia. Born in Bucharest, Romania in 1955, she studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest and at the City Art Institute in Sydney. Anne Lewis first showed her work at the seminal Gallery A in Sydney in 1983, and when that venue closed, she was represented by Coventry Gallery. As her abstract paintings grew larger and more confident Tomescu rapidly established herself as one of Chandler Coventry’s leading artists. With over 30 solo shows to date, Tomescu is one of Australia’s most distinctive and well-respected artists. She has been in numerous group exhibitions both in Australia and internationally; in 2009 a major survey exhibition was held at the Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra.

Tomescu has won a host of prestigious art prizes, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales’s Wynne and Sulman prizes and the Dobell Prize for Drawing.

Tomescu’s work is represented in major museum, regional, university and corporate collections in Australia and internationally, 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.

Image: © Aida Tomescu, Karen Woodbury Gallery