10 July – 9 August 2003

In her latest exhibition of paintings at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Linda Marrinon works the minor genres of the history of European painting. She poaches from pre-twentieth-century academic portraiture, making customized copies and then uses those copies as objects within her own still lifes. Marrinon's portrait copies are quite faithful to their originals although they may be reduced to a detail or slightly simplified in some other way. While mostly literal in quotation, Marrinon's portraits nod discretely toward the (more exaggerated) caricature of her earlier paintings. For Marrinon, caricature is a veil of modesty or even humility placed over the human figure or grand architectural monument to bring it down to a more humble level. By slightly accentuating the comic countenance or facade, Marrinon deflates the sense of awe implicit to the aggrandizing style of state portraiture and state monument, bringing the subject to a position of equality with the viewer.

Marrinon's still lifes conflate the hierarchy of sculptural objects and bring together, in the classical/neo-classical tradition, the disciplines of painting, sculpture and architecture. In her still lifes, painted copies after old master sculptures are assembled together with actual toys, souvenirs and other sundry objects found incidentally around the artist's studio. Representations of the canonical works of great statesmen, such as Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), are placed alongside a small figurine of the 1980s children's book character, Lord Woodmouse the mouse.

Linda Marrinon has been exhibiting with Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery since 1983. In 2001 a solo exhibition of her paintings and sculptures was held at the Ian Potter Museum in Melbourne. Also in 2001, Marrinon was a recipient of the prestigious Samstag scholarship. Her work was included in the Australian Perspecta in 1983 and 1999. She exhibited work in the exhibitions Wit's end (1993) and Word (1999), both at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney as well as many other significant museum exhibitions in Australia. Marrinon's paintings and sculptures are held by the Art Gallery of South Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Her work is also held by a numerous important private collections in Australia. The current self-titled exhibition is Linda Marrinon's sixth solo exhibition with Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.


View exhibition