Artist Linda Marrinon is celebrated for her hand-modelled plaster, bronze and terracotta sculptures, in which she playfully merges historical archetypes with contemporary identities. Drawing on the aesthetics of classical antiquity and 19th-century plaster sculpture, her work adopts the gestures, accessories and attitudes of bygone eras while gently unsettling their authority. Woman with green rose (Portrait of Julia Zemiro) belongs to Marrinon’s Elements of a classical facade series. While her figures often share certain features, Marrinon allows individual character to emerge through the process of modelling. As this sculpture took shape, she discovered unexpected parallels between the developing figure and the screen persona of Julia Zemiro (b. 1967) as the lawyer Roz Gruber in the ABC television series Fisk. In the portrait, the French-born Australian actor, television presenter and writer appears in a flowing classical gown, her poised figure animated by subtle gesture and finely observed details. A delicate necklace, the pointed toe of a shoe emerging beneath the hem and a small green rose pinned at her hip lend the sculpture elegance and a quiet individuality.
Purchased 2025
© Courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
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