Introduction Text – Richard Drury

At the time when the painting is often a superficially applied instrument in visualising personal concepts, Nikola Novákovás’ work is valuable proof that even today a painted picture can come into being as a complex and profoundly felt expression. Here the picture is not simply the materialisation of an idea but a multilayered domain in its own right, a place where ‘polymorphic’ symbolism emerges in a wholly natural way. In her new works, inspired by a trip to Uruguay, we see the characteristic features of her painterly poetics: a rhythmic play of dazzling colours that also illuminate the area of the picture, and a uniquely delicate monumentality indicating the relationship between a transient phenomenon and eternity that it is an inseparable part of. Nature, human culture and artist’s own inner experiences are fused and transformed into an abstracted language of subtle forms and motions evoking a feeling of spiritual wonderment at the rich variety of perceptions that our world provides us with. Nikola Novákovás’ colourist vision touches the rippled water’s surface and the essence of existence at the same time.