Born in Bucharest, Romania in 1955, Aida Tomescu has lived and worked in Australia since 1980. She completed a Diploma of Art (Painting) at the Institute of Fine Arts, Bucharest in 1977 and a Post Graduate Diploma of Art at the City Art Institute, Sydney in 1983. Aida was the inaugural winner of the prestigious LSFA Arts 21 Fellowship in 1996 and has been awarded the Sulman Prize (1996), the Wynne Prize (2001) and the Dobell Prize for Drawing (2003) by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Solo Exhibitions
2009 Paintings and Drawings, ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra
2008 Ravel, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2007 Campi Flegrei, Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney
2006 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2004 Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney
Martin Browne Fine Art at the Yellow House, Sydney
Martin Browne Fine Art, Melbourne Art Fair 2004, Melbourne
2003 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2002 Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney
2000 Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney
1999 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
1997 Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
1995 Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1994 Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
1993 Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1991 Coventry Gallery, Sydney
Deutscher Brunswick Street, Melbourne
1989 Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1987 Reconnaissance Gallery, Melbourne
Coventry Gallery, Sydney
Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra
1986 Design Center, Los Angeles, USA
1985 Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1981 Holdsworth Gallery, Sydney
1979 Cenaclu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
Group Exhibitions
2009 Building a Collection, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Summer Exhibition, Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney
2008 New, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
Time and Place: Selected works from the TWMA Collection, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria
This way up: Abstract works from the La Trobe University Art Collection, La Trobe University Art Museum,
Melbourne
Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Melbourne Art Fair, (Liverpool Street Gallery), Melbourne, Victoria
Paint, RAFT Artspace, Darwin
Blue Chip X: The Collectors’ Exhibition, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
Dobell Prize for Drawing, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2007 Materiality, Switchback Gallery, Gippsland Centre for Art and Design, Monash University
2007: The Year in Art, S H Ervin Gallery, Sydney
The Story of Australian Printmaking 1801 – 2005, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Masters of Emotion, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
Summer Exhibition, Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney
2006 Interchange 2, Museum of Contemporary Art, Hong-ik University, Seoul, Korea
Sixth Drawing Biennale, The Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra
Liverpool Street Gallery, Melbourne Art Fair 2006, Melbourne
Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Redlands Westpac Art Prize Exhibition, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
Fleurieu Peninsula Art Prize Exhibition, South Australia
The Big Picture, Delmar Gallery, Sydney
Painting, Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney
Summer Exhibition, Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney
2005 Drawn from the Collection, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Abstracting the Collection, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
Dobell Prize for Drawing, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
The Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
2004 Australian Prints, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Place Made, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Works on Paper Award, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
2003 Dobell Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Depth of Field, Shepparton Art Gallery, Shepparton; Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2002 Indecorous Abstraction, Light Square Gallery, Adelaide
Mini Series: Stories and Sites in Print Portfolios from the Heide Collection, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
2001 Asia in Australia, Beyond Orientalism, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane
Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Abstraction, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
Paperworks: Australian Artists Exploring Drawing and the Printed Image, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
A Century of Collecting, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
2000 Ten Contemporary Artists and the Print, Spitting and Biting, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
Uncommon World: Aspects of Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
New Acquisitions Part 1, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
1999 Australian Works on Paper Award, George Adams Gallery, Melbourne and touring until 2000
Blue Chip II: The Collectors’ Exhibition, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1998 The Enduring Tradition: Drawings by Nine Contemporary Artists, Toowoomba
Regional Art Gallery, Queensland and touring until 2000
Australian Prints, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Look Again: Contemporary Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Acid Test, RMIT University, Melbourne
Diary ’98, Coventry Gallery, Sydney
National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
Blue Chip Choice, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
1996 Collecting from a University Perspective, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Diary ’96, Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1995 Australia Felix, Benalla Art Gallery, Victoria
Hidden Treasures: Art in Corporate Collections, S H Ervin Gallery, Sydney
Review, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Up, Down and Across, Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Sydney
Dairy ’95, Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1994 Articulate Surfaces: Three Print Cycles, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
New Prints: Eight Contemporary Artists, New England Regional Art Museum, New South Wales
Obsession: Chandler Coventry, Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Sydney
Drawing on Inspiration, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
1993 Chandler Coventry: A Private Collection, Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Sydney
On Paper, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
1992 Seven, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
1991 Anna Bornhort Gallery, London, UK
Deutscher Brunswick Street, Melbourne
New Art Five, Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1990 Abstraction, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and touring
Mass Media Mixed Media, Painters’ Gallery, Sydney
1989 Intimate Drawing, Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1988 The BP 10th British International Print Biennale, Bradford, UK
1987 The Age of Collage, Holdsworth Contemporary Gallery, Sydney
1986 Reconnaissance Gallery, Melbourne
1984 Perspectives, Performance Space, Sydney
1983 A Different Perspective, Artspace, Sydney
1982 Women Artists: Group Exhibition, Gallery A, Sydney
1981 University of New South Wales, Sydney
1978 National Museum, Bucharest, Romania
Coleections
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Allens Arthur Robinson, Sydney
Artbank
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria
The British Museum, London
Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Sydney
The Chartwell Collection, New Zealand
The Derwent Collection, Tasmania
Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
Holmes à Court Collection, Perth
The IBM Australia Collection
La Trobe University Art Museum
The Macquarie Group Collection, Sydney
Mallesons Stephen Jacques, Melbourne
Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
Myer Art Foundation, Melbourne
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
National Museum, Bucharest, Romania
Newcastle Region Art Gallery, New South Wales
New England Regional Art Museum, New South Wales
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane
TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria
Toowomba Regional Gallery, Queensland
University of New South Wales, Sydney
University of Sydney, New South Wales
University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
University of Western Sydney, New South Wales
Wagga Wagga City Art Gallery, New South Wales
Westpac Collection, New York
Awards and Commissions
2003 Dobell Prize for Drawing, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2001 Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1999 Australian Works on Paper Award, Melbourne
1998 Federal Law Courts of Australia, Melbourne
1996 LSFA Arts 21 Fellowship, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
Sir John Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1995 Contemporary Art Award, Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Sydney
Kedumba Drawing Prize, Kedumba Art Society
1994 Contemporary Art Award, The King’s School, New South Wales
1992 Contemporary Art Prize, Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Sydney
1986 Myer Art Foundation
Selected Publications
Dr Janet McKenzie, ‘ Aida Tomescu: Paintings and Drawings’, Studio International, November 2009, www.studiointernational.co.uk
John McDonald, ‘Intoxicated by technique’, Spectrum, The Sydney Morning Herald, 24-25 October 2009
Sasha Grishin, ‘Power in an individual vision’, The Canberra Times, 20 October 2009
Dr Deborah Hart, ‘Aida Tomescu: States of Becoming’, Aida Tomescu: Paintings and Drawings, ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, 2009
Cathy Leahy, Building a Collection, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2009
Laura Pia, ‘Infinitely Subtle Threads – The Art of Aida Tomescu’, LOOK Magazine, March Issue, 2009
Aida Tomescu, Ravel, essay by Barry Pearce, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 2008
Sarah Thomas, Encounters with Australian Modern Art, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Macmillan Publishing, Melbourne 2008
Paint, essay by Nicholas Rothwell, exhibition catalogue, RAFT Artspace, Darwin, 2008
Susan McCulloch, ‘Paint,’ Art World, Issue 3, June-July 2008
‘Contemporary Beauty’, Artlink, Margaret Moore (ed.), vol.28, no.2, 2008
John McDonald, ‘Pathways to other worlds’ The Sydney Morning Herald, 1-2 September, 2007
Tracey Clement, ‘Metro Picks’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 31 August, 2007
Aida Tomescu, Campi Flegrei, essay by Terence Maloon, Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney, 2007
Sonia Payes, Untitled: Portraits of Australian Artists, essay by Terence Maloon, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne,
2007
Irena Zdanowicz, Masters of Emotion, exhibition catalogue, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria, 2007
John McDonald and R. Ian Lloyd, STUDIO: Australian Painters on the Nature of Creativity, R. Ian Lloyd Productions, Sydney, 2007
Jo Higgins, ‘Aida Tomescu’, Australian Art Collector, issue 41, July-September 2007
Janet Hawley, ‘Rooms of Their Own’, Good Weekend, The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 June 2007
Sebastian Smee, ‘Worth the Work’, The Weekend Australian, 19-20 May 2007
Terence Maloon, ‘Out of the Web: Aida Tomescu’s Drawing’, Sixth Drawing Biennale, exhibition catalogue, Drill Hall
Gallery, The Australian National University, Canberra, 2006
Terence Maloon, Aida Tomescu, exhibition catalogue, Niagara Publishing, 2006
John McDonald, ‘Undeniable Presence’, Australian Art Collector, issue 36, April-June 2006
Betsy Brennan, ‘What Lies Beneath’, Vogue Living, November 2004
Susan McCulloch, ‘The Perennial Power of the Line’, The Weekend Australian, 25 October 2003
Elizabeth Fortescue, ‘Battle Lines Drawn as Some See the Light on Artwork’, The Daily Telegraph, 13 September 2003
Cathy Pryor, ‘Dobell-Winning ‘Squiggles’ Draw Criticism’, The Australian, 12 September 2003
Joyce Morgan, ‘Archibald’s Little Sister Drawn Out of the Shadows’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 September 2003
Helen Musa, ‘Optimistic Image of Candle Wins Top Drawing Prize’, The Canberra Times, 12 September 2003
‘Child’s Play’, The Daily Telegraph, 12 September 2003
‘Sydney Artist Draws Plaudits with Dobell Prize’, The Age, 12 September 2003
Anne Gray, ed., Australian Art in the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2002
Michael Newel, ‘Indecorous Abstraction: Contemporary Women Painters’, Artlink, vol. 22, 2002
Laura Murray Cree, ‘Aida Tomescu’, Island Magazine, vol. 90, Hobart, 2002
Barry Pearce, Australian Painting in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2001
Sasha Grishin, ‘Memorable Exhibition of Works on Paper’, The Canberra Times, 19 June 2001
Louise Martin Chew, ‘Culturally under the Influence: Asia in Australia, Beyond Orientalism’, The Australian, 1 June 2001
Laura Murray Cree and Nevill Drury, eds., Australian Painting Now, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2000
Elena Taylor, Uncommon World: Aspects of Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2000
Sarah Hudson, ‘Creative Tension’, The Herald Sun, 5 November 1999
Hendrik Kolenberg, Australian Prints, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1998
Sally Fisher, ‘Tomescu Triumph’, The Herald Sun, November 1998
Christopher Allen, Art in Australia: From Colonisation to Post-Modernism, Thames and Hudson, London, 1997
Peter Timms, ‘Tomescu Swaps Intensity for Serenity’, The Age, 26 November 1997
Robert Rooney, ‘The Arts on Friday: Exhibitions’, The Australian, 21 November 1997
John McDonald, ‘Aida Tomescu’, LSFA Arts 21 Fellowship, exhibition catalogue, November 1997
Anna Voight, New Visions New Perspectives, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1996
Jane Freeman, ‘Triumph for Aida’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 November 1996
Rebecca Lancashire, ‘Winning in the Mid-Career Years’, The Age, 19 November 1996
John McDonald, ‘The Art Prize that Surprises’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 March 1996
Victoria Lynn, ‘Review’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1995
Felicity Fenner, ‘Ambivalence Leads to a Sense of Timelessness’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 May 1995
Neville Drury, Images 2: Contemporary Australian Painting, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1994
Hendrik Kolenberg, Obsession: Chandler Coventry, exhibition catalogue, Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Sydney, 1994
Elwyn Lynn, ‘Primitive Cool Hints at Maze of the Mind’, The Australian, 21 August 1993
Jacques Delaruelle, ‘Seven’, Art Monthly, October 1992
Christopher Allen, ‘Seven at Ivan Dougherty’, Asian Art News, September 1992
Robert Rooney, ‘Escape from the Time Warp’, The Australian, 29 August 1992
Neville Drury, News Art Five, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1991
Robert Rooney, ‘Cross Cultural Icons’, The Australian, 29 August 1991
Elwyn Lynn, ‘Surrender to Dark Powers’, The Australian, 10 August 1991
Peter Timms, ‘Fascinating Aida’, Oz Arts, No.1, 1991
Eileen Chanin, ed., Contemporary Australian Painting, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1990
Arthur McIntyre, Contemporary Australian Collage and its Origins, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1990
Victoria Lynn, Abstraction, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1990
Peter Timms, ‘Impressions: Aida Tomescu’, Art and Australia, vol.28, no.2, Summer 1990
Christopher Allen, ‘Worlds Apart’, Art Monthly, October 1989
Jacques Delaruelle, ‘Ultimate Verifiers’, Sydney Review, September 1989
Elwyn Lynn, ‘Creative Comparisons’, The Weekend Australian, 12 August 1989
John McDonald, ‘Dense Surfaces of Swirling Drama’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 August 1989
Alison Barclay, ‘Who’s Who in the 1990s’, The Australian, 25 March 1989
John McDonald, ‘Reinvention of Fascinating Aida’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 August 1988
Elwyn Lynn, ‘Metaphor as a Means of Power’, The Australian, 15 August 1988
Guy Burn, ‘The BP 10th British International Print Biennale’, Arts Review, 6 May 1988
Victoria Lynn, The BP 10th British International Print Biennale, exhibition catalogue, Bradford, UK, 1988
John McDonald, ‘Discipline Gives Strategy for Survival’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 May 1986
Rudy Kraussman, Aspect, no.29, 1984
Terence Maloon, A Different Perspective, exhibition catalogue, Artspace, Sydney, 1983
