From Sharne Wolff…
One look at Ildiko Kovacs’ Looking Through exhibition and you get the impression that she wasn’t a kid who liked to stay inside the lines. Kovacs works intuitively and her lines often appear to possess a life of their own – reflecting the physicality of her painting process. In more recent years, her work has led the viewer’s gaze back and forth around the space and perhaps a bit beyond, with her spontaneous and wandering grooves almost struggling to escape the edges of the painting. This latest show also sees her experiment with layered squares and other blocky shapes in homage to fellow Australian artists Roy Jackson and John Peart, both of whom died last year.
Not easily categorised as ‘landscapes’, although at times that’s where these works have drawn inspiration, this show is divided into two groups of oils – a smaller group are on card mounted on board, while the larger works, some of which are more than two metres in length, are painted directly onto plywood. Never daunted by colour Kovacs performs some bold experiments with tone and contrast. With layers of paint bringing depth and light to the work, the paintings are innovative, occasionally surprising and pretty much always successful.
Until October 5
Martin Browne Contemporary, Paddington
Pic: Ildiko Kovacs Skate 2014, oil on plywood, 180 x 270cm. Courtesy the artist and Martin Browne Contemporary.
