Ildiko Nova

Ildiko uses different media such as spontaneous marker drawings, illustrations and acrylic paintings, uses recycled materials. She explores the line between reality and dreaming and juxtaposes unusual elements.

BIOGRAPHY

Ildiko Nova was born in Hungary in 1966. She has been doing art since she was a child. Though she is mostly self-taught in art, she also took courses in watercolour at George Brown College in Toronto. Ildiko uses different media such as spontaneous marker drawings, illustrations and acrylic paintings, uses recycled materials. She explores the line between reality and dreaming and juxtaposes unusual elements.

Trained as a community worker, Ildiko is always looking for connections to communities. She has taught art to street people in Toronto, volunteered in different art organisations in Winnipeg.

Her interest as an activist includes human rights issues for underprivileged, marginalised communities and ethnic groups; she also would like to see more respect paid to women and children in our society.  With past experiences as a Roma in Eastern Europe at the back of her mind, Ildiko has gratefully accepted invitations from Aboriginal classmates in Canada to learn about their cultures – and this new awareness also surfaces in her art.

Work and achievements:

2009          Toronto Dollar, Frankly Bob Award

2009           My Toronto, individual Photo Exhibition, Budapest Hungary

2010/11      Refugee Rights Day, Group Show, Toronto

2013            WRHA Crisis Response Centre, permanent installation, Winnipeg MB

2013            Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Annual Report cover, Winnipeg

2014            Art City Winnipeg, We Love Winnipeg community mural

2014/15      Urban Art Gallery, Downtown BIZ Winnipeg, Winning Installation

2016            Downtown BIZ Winnipeg, Winning Bicycle rack design

 

Child with Child

This piece represents the current situation that is an overwhelming problem in not only the Hungarian Roma but also in other marginalised groups as well – the issue of teenage pregnancies.

There are multiple factors that cause this problem such as the racism, xenophobia in the mainstream society and the lack of education and self-respect in the Roma communities. The school system tries to segregate those Roma children who are already vulnerable to function in society.

The problem within the Roma community is the normalised perception of early pregnancies. Girls often do not have a positive model that would teach them their rights and that non-consensual sexual contact is unacceptable and illegal. They do not have a word of their own to make decisions or have their own choices. All these babies are going to grow up without proper care, in poverty and in a perpetuating cycle of exclusion from a normal life.

These young teenagers need a new perspective that teaches them that education is the most important way to break out from the slums and poverty. They need to learn to prioritise values, to fight racism with education. They need to improve their own life first before giving birth to more disadvantaged children.

Contact

ildikonova@gmail.com

OTHER ARTIST

Aleksandra Karpowicz is a London-based visual artist whose work focuses exclusively on the human form

Alex is a practicing Artist, Author and Curator and has an MA in Art Psychotherapy,

The art of thoughtful stitching. As an artist I draw my inspiration from the every-day: