Ilona Szalay studied English Literature at the University of Oxford and went on to study at Central St Martins and Byam Shaw School of Art.

Competitions & Awards: Ilona won the inaugural Women In Art Fair Prize 2025 and was the recipient of the ORA Contemporary Art Prize (Italy). She was a finalist for the prestigious Threadneedle Prize, long-listed for the Contemporary British Art Prize, 2024 and also a finalist for the Trinity Buiy Wharf Drawing Prize, 2018. Her exhibition history includes the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2016 & 2008, the British Painter’s Association and the Barbican.

Solo Exhibitions: ‘Only lovers left alive’, London, 2024; ‘We were the first that ever burst into that silent sea’, Bruton, 2023; ‘The witch’s house’, Edinburgh, 2022; ‘Chronic Fantasies’, London, 2022; ‘Delirium’, London, 2021; ‘Some are born to sweet delight’, Edinburgh, 2020; ‘Oracle’, Edinburgh, 2019; ‘Mirror’ - Pulse Miami, 2019; ‘Volta14’, Basel, 2018;                                                                                   

Group Exhibitions: ‘Islomania’, Margate, curated by Cathy Lomax, 2025; ‘Reverb’, London, curated by Grace Mattingly. 2025; Women in art fair, 2025; ‘Sex Magic’, London, book launch for Amy Hale published by Tate, 2024; ‘The coordinate plane’, NYC, 2023; ‘Portal’, London, 2023; ‘Safe as Milk’, London, 2021; ‘Cruel Intentions’, London, 2021; London Art Fair 2018-2020; Manchester Art Fair, 2019; ‘Radical Love’ 2018; Panter and Hall, NYC, 2018; ‘LA Summer’, Edinburgh, 2018; Art16 Olympia, 2016.