Dagmar Cyrulla’s oil paintings and works on paper depict figures often within an interior, domestic space. However it is the relationships played out on this private stage that form the true subject here – charted through a subtle language of glances and gestures. This powerful yet ambiguous subtext creates a psychological charge that resonates throughout her entire oeuvre, as Cyrulla masters the art of the open-ended narrative.

Cyrulla's work has a stirring psychological element. With unwavering honesty Cyrulla allows the viewer to enter the very private, interior world of her subjects. Employing her keen skills of observation, Cyrulla uses tonal variation to model form. In doing so she accurately captures her subject’s physicality, along with less tangible qualities of mood and atmosphere that give these works their charged intensity.


Cyrulla has completed a Master of Fine Arts at Monash University, Melbourne. Her work is held in major private and public collections in Australia and overseas including London Print Workshop, Print Council of Australia, Chicago Printmakers collective, Pratt Group Holdings, and Bathurst Regional Gallery. In 2010 Cyrulla was awarded the Mount Eyre Vineyards Art Prize, and received second prize in the prestigious Shirley Hannan Portrait Prize, while also being selected for the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, amongst numerous other important awards for painting and drawing. Cyrulla has recently received the Dame Joan Sutherland grant for travel and study in New York.