Fox Jensen & Fox Jensen McCrory

AIDA TOMESCU

Australia

D.O.B: 03/10/1955

Aida Tomescu is without question one of Australia’s most important painters. She has been the recipient of the Sulman, Wynne and Dobell prizes and had a major survey of her painting at the Drill Hall Gallery in 2009. This survey was accompanied by an important essay by Dr. Deborah Hart of the National Gallery, one that demonstrates a long affinity with and sensitivity to the work. Whilst her work is made here, its genesis and its manifestation point to a much greater awareness and historical cognizance of traditions in painting that gratefully transcend the claustrophobia of the provincial. Tomescu herself suggests that Australia afforded her the “space” and distance, even a quality of isolation that she feels is crucial to her work. Though it is her tenacity and independence of spirit that provides the ballast and footing for working in this location whilst letting her neatly side-step the potentially suffocating narratives that can relegate painting to cultural illustration.