The Natural Connection

26 July - 20 August 2023

Dagmar Ackerman, Felicia Finlayson & Marilyn Ross

Dagmar Ackerman, What Lies Beneath Blue Square Panel

For The Natural Connection, glass artist Dagmar Ackerman together with painters Felicia Finlayson and Marilyn Ross examine the importance of open space in urban areas as a source of social, spiritual and physical nourishment. Finlayson and Ross use shape, mark-making and colour to express abstract meditations on nature, and set against this backdrop, Dagmar’s glass art conjures shimmering water, and what lies beneath.

Dagmar Ackerman was born in Czechoslovakia and migrated to Australia in 1954. Ackerman trained in glass-making at Sydney College of the Arts in 1997, and in 1997 established her Balmain Studio. Her works are characterised by the repetition and accumulation of intricate elements, inspired by patterns in nature. Ackerman draws her lively palette from the colours of the Australian reef and rainforest. She has exhibited extensively in Australia and abroad, and in addition to her personal practice, conducts glass-making classes for children and adults.

Painter Felicia Finlayson simplifies and abstracts shapes, patterns and contrasts found in nature. She produces sketches, collages, watercolours, monoprints and acrylic studies ‘en plein air’ from which larger works are developed. Her paintings capture the patterns that emerge as the eye scans from horizon to foreground—bark variations, fungi folding upon itself, light filtering through leaves, or shapes created by overlapping grasses and branches. Felicia works in the One + 2 Studios in Lilyfield and has exhibited extensively throughout Sydney’s Inner West.

Marilyn Ross studied Fashion Design and Fashion Teaching at the East Sydney Technical College from 1970-74, and went on to train at the Paddington Art School, the Royal Art Society of NSW, the North Shore School of Art, and the Waverley Art School. Following a career in fashion, Marilyn is now a full-time mixed-media artist who has developed a sophisticated approach to mark-making and the layering of paint. Marilyn works from her studio at One + 2 Studios in Lilyfield and has exhibited extensively throughout Sydney’s Inner West and Lower North Shore.