SUNLIGHT: Roger Ackling

SUNLIGHT: Roger Ackling is the first survey and most comprehensive exhibition of the work of artist Roger Ackling (1947–2014), one of the most quietly influential artists of the late twentieth century.

For fifty years Ackling consistently made objects by burning wood – focusing sunlight through the lens of a hand-held magnifying glass to scorch repeated patterns of lines on the surface. Collecting driftwood from the beach at Weybourne near his home on the Norfolk coastline, as well as reclaimed broken and discarded materials, Ackling took little from the world to make his work and left nothing beyond a wisp of smoke in the air.

This exhibition reveals the breadth of Ackling’s practice, from his earliest experiments with a lens, to his final works. Ackling is best known for his work on found driftwood, which will be on display alongside lesser-known sculptures made using domestic wooden objects and tools, and those incorporating ready-made elements such as elastic bands and mapping pins. After his death, Roger Ackling’s archive was gifted to the Archive of Sculptors’ Papers, which is part of Leeds Museums and Galleries’ collection and housed at Henry Moore Institute. Photographs, sketches, notes and even the bag he took out with him when making work are on display in the exhibition, providing a full picture of the artist and his work.

SUNLIGHT: Roger Ackling is developed in partnership with the Artist’s Estate, Annely Juda Fine Art, Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery and the Pier Arts Centre. It was first on display at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery in 2024 and will travel to Pier Arts Centre, Orkney, opening on 12 July 2025.

An accompanying hardback publication includes contributions from Sylvia Ackling, Amanda Geitner, Rosy Gray, Dean Hughes, Louis Nixon and Ian Parker, alongside a wealth of illustrations of both works and archival material.