Ilka is a German-Canadian artist based in Victoria, British Columbia. After taking drawing lessons as a teenager, she spent 20 years studying, researching, and teaching biology. This took her from Germany to England, Wales, and ultimately to Canada where she spent years exploring boreal wetlands. Ilka has taught biology and botany, and, more recently, studied environmental policy and law before she turned her focus to artistic practice.
Today, the themes she explores in her art are informed by her life experience, with questions about the environment, reality, governance, and identity all recurring in her practice. Ilka enjoys the freedom she has as an artist to work across boundaries, and to develop her own visual language to explore complex issues. Her paper sculptures create visual metaphors about concepts of reality and fragility of intent. Her expansive ink panels are bold yet detailed, often blurring the boundary between drawing and painting.
Ilka is a member of the International Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists, and an Associate member of the Federation of Canadian Artists. She has shown her work in British Columbia and other parts of Canada, and is starting to extend her reach internationally.