We are very pleased to announce Aida Tomescu’s first solo exhibition at Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne. Aida is one of Australia’s most prominent female abstract painters. She was the inaugural winner of the prestigious LSFA Arts 21 Fellowship (1996) and the winner of The Sulman Prize (1996), The Wynne Prize (2001), and the Dobell Prize for Drawing (2003) by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
 
This exhibition will showcase Tomescu’s characteristic visual process indelibly presented through her work in a series of ambitious recent paintings and works on paper. The restless energy, spontaneity, subtle nuances and internal rhythms within the work are the result of an active working integrated whole generated by Tomescu’s technique of attentive repetition. Tomescu scrapes and reworks the painted surface to reveal previous layers that become important and active components of the finished work. Her paintings and works on paper are full of beginnings and transitions that lead to ongoing discoveries of experience and memory into the tangible and intangible alike. This body of work is extremely emotive conjuring feelings of fragility, weakness, while also instilling a strength of spirit.
 
Aida is extremely prolific and has shown widely, including major solo exhibitions that include, Paintings and Drawings at the Australian National University, Canberra (2009) and Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne (1997). Her work has been included in many important group exhibitions including the Sulman Prize: Finalists’ Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2009, 2008, 2006, 2003 and 1996); Wynne Prize Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2001, 1999); Building a Collection, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2009); La Trobe University Art Museum, Melbourne (2008), Masters of Emotion, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria (2007).
 
Tomescu’s work is represented in many important public collections, including: The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne; The British Museum, London and Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand. Her work has also been acquired by corporate collections, including: The Macquarie Group Collection, Allens Arthur Robinson and IBM Australia as well as important private collections, including: The Laverty Collection and The Holmes a Court Collection.