Her practice embraces sculpture, drawing, film making, writing, often working in the public realm. Most recently her work has focused on the element of water as the connective element in the landscape, Kovats explores the psychological and poetic, as well as activating water to provide a route to explore critical environmental and socio-political questions. This has generated works addressing coral bleaching ‘Bleached’; mobilising a global network of sea water collectors for All the Seas; made films addressing the impact sea water rising on coastal communities ‘COTIDAL’;  and repeatedly draws her favourite line, the horizon between sea and sky, in her series of works ‘Sea Mark’.

Kovats is a leading advocate for drawing as a primary form of expression that renders thought visible and external. She promotes drawing as a tool of empathy and personal ecology. She is Professor of Drawing and Making at the University of Dundee. Her approach to drawing has informed Kovats’ one of her drawing publications, ‘Drawing Water: drawing as a mechanism of exploration’ that forms her reflections on a collection of drawings all thematically linked by the sea.

Kovats has shown her work in many different context, nationally and internationally, and artworks are in both public and private collections in the UK and abroad, including Arts Council, Jupiter Artland, The British Council, Government Art Collection, the National Maritime Museum Greenwich, and the V&A.