Roger Ackling

Born 1947 – Died 2014

Roger Ackling was born in Isleworth and studied at St Martin’s School of Art in London with contemporaries including Richard Long. As a sculptor, Ackling worked most often with wood, privileging found and discarded materials onto which he burned intricate patterns of lines using a magnifying glass in the sun. He and his wife Sylvia (née Crowther) lived on the Norfolk coast, an area frequently subject to erosion and a source of materials for his sculpture. At St Martin’s, Ackling was also influenced by experimental filmmaker Malcolm Le Grice, and worked at the London Filmmakers’ Co-operative to produce moving image works with an environmental theme. Ackling showed with the Lisson Gallery and Annely Juda in London, alongside teaching at the Chelsea School of Art from the 1980s until 2012.