Marilyn Tabatznik

Marilyn was born in 1951 in Johannesburg, South Africa. From a young age, Marilyn was interested in different cultures, spirituality, music and languages. She has always seen art as a form of communication. Graduating from the University of Witwatersrand in 1971 with a Batchelor of Arts, Marilyn relocated to the UK to continue her studies in Theology at the University of Manchester, and later, at Sir John Cass School of Art.

Marilyn first encountered the ancient Japanese technique of Raku whilst living in London, she quickly became enthralled as the effect reminded her of Africa.

She first arrived in Broome by chance on what some would call a twist of fate. While waiting at a bus stop in Monkey Mia to head South to Perth then onto Japan for a teaching job, Marilyn spotted a bus headed to Broome & Darwin. Her intuition told her that she needed to be heading North instead, and without any hesitation she boarded that bus. Upon arriving in Broome, she felt a sense of belonging and knew that she had made the right decision. Being in Broome influenced Marilyns work enormously. Not only did she start to work with Steel here, she mentions that in England all of her work was dark, but as soon as she made the spontaneous move to Broome she started producing work with a lot more colour.

Marilyn has gone on to create many very distinctive works using Steel, Ceramic and Raku over the course of her career spanning more than 40 years. Marilyn has had many solo and group exhibitions in locations such as London, New York, Amsterdam & Sydney just to name a few. Her work is featured in collections all over the world.

Marilyn has said that each piece conveyed a message which is open to interpretation by each individual.

“If people look closely enough, they can make their own story. That’s more important than my story- It’s about broadening perceptions”