MELBOURNE.- Linda Marrinon is the second Australian artist to receive the $50,000 Don Macfarlane Prize – an annual gift awarded to an established Australian artist in recognition of their unwavering, agenda-setting arts practice and contribution to Australian art.

Born in 1959 and based in Melbourne, Linda Marrinon first came to prominence in the 1980s for her witty postmodern paintings, mixing pop culture and modern art. More recently, she has created a compelling body of figurative sculpture, combining 19th century techniques with a contemporary sensibility. Her beguiling sculptures are objects full of irony and humour, drawing on historical figures, theatrical stereotypes and fashion tropes. Echoing classical, 19th century sculptural traditions, Marrinon subverts the genre, reinterpreting this weighty history with amusing, anti-heroic and sometimes cartoon-like simplifications, replete with contemporary reference and relevance.

The Don Macfarlane Prize is named after benefactor Don Macfarlane, a respected Melbourne businessman who throughout his life took immense pleasure in the arts. It was established to redress what he felt were significant gaps in the philanthropic and funding sector for significant senior Australian artists.

Unlike other prizes, there is no application process – the shortlist and recipient is decided by an Advisory Committee made up of senior members of Australia’s visual arts community.

In announcing the award, the Advisory Committee noted; “We are thrilled to make this award to Linda Marrinon. Her sculptures show a deep commitment to studio craft and the history of art. She combines this with great humour and wit. Linda deftly positions her work between high and mass culture, art and decoration, good taste and kitsch. Her figurative sculptures are filled with wry observations on human nature. A Linda Marrinon exhibition is a conga line of posers, fashion victims and heroes. Her sculptures are smart, intriguing and over the top. They’re deadly serious but they’ll make you laugh out loud.”

“For more than three decades, Linda has worked with diligence and determination in pursuit of her vision. She’s not afraid to change direction, relearn her craft, and put years into developing her practice. The force of her work is testament to her steadfast and honest commitment to making art. This award recognises her incredible contribution to Australian art.”

In accepting the prize, Linda Marrinon said; “This is an amazing opportunity, and I plan to use it to explore some of the technical issues I have in enlarging my sculptures – which I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. That’s a real thrill for me, which will show in the work in years to come. It will let me do things I wasn’t able to do before,” she said.

A key figure in Australian art since the 1980s, Linda Marrinon first came to prominence for her idiosyncratic paintings and drawings that reflected the postmodern parody and feminist wit of the time. Since 2006, her practice has shifted primarily into sculpture, and over the past ten years she has produced a significant body of modestly scaled figurative sculpture and busts in terracotta, plaster and bronze.

Marrinon has been subject of major survey exhibitions at Monash University Museum of Art in 2016; and at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne in 2001. In 2001 she was the recipient of the prestigious Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship.

Recent solo exhibitions include Architects! Terracotta!, 2018; Linda Marrinon, 2016, and Plaster Busts, 2014, at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; and group exhibitions include Today Tomorrow Yesterday, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2016; Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, 2013-14 and Mix Tape 1980s: Appropriation, Subculture, Critical Style, at the National Gallery of Victoria, 2013. Marrinon’s work is held in public collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, Monash University Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and the National Gallery of Australia Canberra.