Ilene Sova won her first portrait painting competition at the age of four and the recognition continued with accolades throughout her school years. At seventeen, Ilene began three years of study in the Old Master academic techniques under Classical Realist portraitist Ronald Bayens.

In addition to studying art at Ottawa University, Sova focused on psychology and began to take an apt interest in woman's psychology in particular. Women's roles in a Canadian patriarchal society became clear and unsettling to her. After this impassioned awakening she combined these key concerns and committed her life’s work to painting about the minds of women and how they are affected by society's gender constructs.

Upon completion of her Honours BFA; Ilene received immediate acceptance to the University of Windsor's Masters Programme. There she completed the Epic Series, each painting its own psychological drama that dealt with depression, anorexia, domestic violence and child abuse. Her technical mastery backed and emboldened by a third wave feminist sensibility, made Ilene’s portraits ageless and subversive, upsetting the old paradigms of the male gaze and the female as victim.

With extensive solo and group exhibitions, Sova is fast becoming known as one of the most exciting portraitists in Toronto. With numerous appearances in television, web and print media, she was most recently featured on Al Gore’s Television program, The Current.