Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery is proud to present an exhibition of new sculptures by Linda Marrinon. The self-titled exhibition displays portrait busts, statuettes and in a first for Marrinon, a series of animal sculptures.

Marrinon builds her characters from other worlds, stealing protagonists from Greek and Roman mythology, classic fiction and art history - drawing inspiration from a variety of time periods and narratives. Working in plaster, terracotta and bronze, her pieces call to mind a sketch, a quick free hand drawing and this is precisely what lends them a contemporary voice. As a viewer you sense both the symbolism and allegory.

There is something painterly in this collection of statuettes, a hybridisation between disciplines. Her subjects could be plucked from a major museum but in her hands she conjures a contemporary take on humanity. There is evidence of abstract expressionism in Marrinon’s handling that suggests her past as a painter.

Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of Marrinon’s work is her ability to capture a profound depth in her subjects with the most humble of materials, clay. This sensitivity within her subjects and the apparent ease of construction reveals her technical brilliance. Surpassing all these technical aspects however, is the authorial gesture, the spare hand of the artist that brings the poetry to these constructions.

—Kate Alstergren

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Linda Marrinon has exhibited widely since the early 1980s. Major survey exhibitions of her work have been held at the Monash University Museum, Melbourne (2015), The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne (2001), and The Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (1987). In 2013, Marrinon exhibited a group of eleven sculptures in Melbourne Now at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. This same year, she was included in the exhibition Mix Tape 1980’s: Appropriation, Subculture, Critical Style also held at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Marrinon’s work is held by all the major public institutions in Australia including the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. In 2001, Marrinon was awarded the prestigious Samstag Fellowship, which supported her studies at the New York Academy of Art. In 2008 Chris McAuliffe authored a monograph on Marrinon’s work, Let Her Try, published by Craftsman House. This will be Linda Marrinon’s twelth solo exhibition with Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.