Éva Bodnár draws and paints what she loves.The starting point of her work is her own current position, from which she seeks what is suitable to work with in that particular moment. She allows her tools — her eyes, hands, thoughts, and feelings — to flow freely in order to interrupt an unwanted thinking process during drawing or painting, and perhaps find an answer: How can one paint without conscious thought? In the midst of her conscious processual unfolding, comprehensive considerations regarding effectiveness, one's range of action, and abilities are at play. The central question of one's own abilities, what one is able to do without artificial intervention, out of one's own strength, without tricks and double bottoms, how much one can achieve alone and at what point it stagnates without other participants, accompanies the artist throughout her life. Bodnár's rich potpourri of experience as well as certainty in composition and technique allow her to act as a courageous tightrope walker of her own creation. Through diverse, sometimes given, sometimes self-imposed framework conditions, such as temporal or spatial limits, she permanently challenges herself in her self-discipline. This certain kind of stress in combination with the elaborated chance, whose use always requires good and clear decisions, ensures a strong presence resting in itself. In this sense, Bodnár administers herself a healthy dose of heartbeat, which is clearly visible in her works, which are bursting with power and liveliness.

Éva Bodnár was born in Budapest in 1952. There she studied at the Hungarian Academy of Arts from 1973 to 1976. A little later in Vienna, after once again successfully passing the entrance examination, Bodnár continued her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and graduated in 1981 in the master class of Wolfgang Hollegha, whose basic idea - to think before and after painting, but not during - was transferred into Bodnár's own working method. Since 2002 she has been teaching drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts, helping her students to activate their own drawing and painting machines. Éva Bodnár lives as a freelance artist in Vienna.

Selected exhibitions: 2022, solo presentation, Parallel Vienna, Semmelweißklinik 1180 Vienna; 2020, FRAC des Pays de la Loire Carquefou, FR; 2019, Vom Hunger nach Bildern, curated by Gerald Matt, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck + Vienna; 2018, Éva Bodnár & Walter Obholzer, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman Innsbruck; 2015, Aufstehen oder liegen bleiben? (solo), Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienna; 2013+2014, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna; 2012, fallingwater (solo), Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck; 2005+2006, 15.+16. International Art Symposium, KulturAXE, Fertörakos Castle and Ricsovary Estate, HU; 2001, Artothek des Bundes, Parliament Vienna; 1999, (solo) Ludwig Museum Budapest, HU; 1997 5th Interntaional Istanbul Biennial, TUR; 1989, BEN-HUR, Secession Vienna.

Works in public collections: Generali Foundation, AT; EVN Sammlung, AT; Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, AT; Centre George Pompidou, FR; FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, FR; Collection Gabi & Wilhelm Schürmann, GER; Collection Rudolf Zwirner, GER; Artothek des Bundes Österreich, AT.