Father’s legacy, nature’s wonder keep Olsen in the picture

The artist explains how painting will always be thethread that connects her with her father the lategreat design luminary John Olsen.

‘Talent to burn’: At last a solo show for artist Valerie Strong Olsen

More than 10 years after her death, the work of John Olsen’s ex-wife shows her talent as a painter.

‘Mum wasn’t looking for fame’: John Olsen’s children unveil Valerie Strong’s first solo art show

Ten years after their mother’s death, Tim and Louise reveal the striking landscapes and portraits painted by the limelight-shy second wife of John Olsen.

Above: ‘She had no ego’: Australian artist Valerie Marshall Strong Olsen, who died in 2011, pictured here in the mid-1970s. Her children, Tim and Louise Olsen, are now staging her first solo exhibition. Photograph: Robert Raymond

‘At last she is being heard’: Valerie Strong, matriarch of the Olsen family, has first solo exhibition

Valerie Strong was a student at East Sydney Technical College when John Olsen was briefly a teacher. The man who is now one of Australia’s most famous living artists praised Strong’s marks on paper: “I should have done that. I wish I’d done that line.”

King-of-bright John Olsen reveals his dark and melancholy side

Review of John Olsen: Goya's Dog exhibition at the National Art School.

Olsen's Shining Moment

Works not seen in public for decades will be on show at a major exhibition by the 93-year-old artist - Goya's Dog at the National Art School, Darlinghurst until 7 August 2021.

JOHN OLSEN CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ

If you have (or have previously) an original John Olsen work, please contact Kylie Norton, editor@johnolsenartist.com

Exhibition of New Works by Australian Photographic Artist Leila Jeffreys Opens at Olsen Gruin

Revisiting the world of the Budgerigar â?? the subject of her first solo exhibition some nine years ago â?? Leila Jeffreysâ?? High Society includes her signature large format portraits and sees her exploring new territory. 

Focus on Photography: 7 Not-To-Be-Missed Solo Shows in New York

Contemporary photography is a major focus of the cityâ??s September shows.

21 Gallery Shows You Won't Want to Miss in New York This Fall, From Amy Sherald's Star Turn to a Historic Cuban Artist's US Debut

Artnet News highlights George Byrne: Exit Vision as a must see show this fall. 

Drawn to Dusk - Artist Paul Davies puts his crafted LA work on show at Sydney

Paul Davies cuts his stencils with the same kind of scalpel blade his ophthalmologist father uses to slice into eyes. The results are different of course. Davies junior's use of the scalpel is potentially far less messy and brings forth images that are apparently serene and seemingly two-dimensional. Yet the issue of redefining vision is the same. That is a theme that has defined this 36-year-old artist's career to this date. Born in Sydney, now living in Los Angeles, he often uses mid-20th-century modern architecture in his work yet says what is there is not what it seems.

Paradise Lost: Paul Davies' Fictive California

The painter's depiction of breezy palm trees and picturesque mountain ranges contain eccentric, discordant details.

Paul Davies: The Roaring Daze at Olsen Gruin

Davies, a Sydney, Australia native now living in Los Angeles, pulls his visual references heavily from legendary if not infamous architectural structures, which he personally documents using digital photography and later (often years later) renders up in his large-scale, pulpy (in the full Tarantino version of the word) acrylic on canvas paintings. The show also features one-off, sunset-pastel, long-exposure photograms as well as his minimal, hand-painted, laser cut sculptures. 

Step Into Australian Desert Dreamtime at Olsen Gruin Gallery

Walk into Olsen Gruin Gallery in Culver City and step into another place and time. Surrounding viewers are what look like large-scale abstract expressionist paintings from the mid-century by mavericks who drank, cursed and smoked too much. But titles like "Mamungari ‘nya," "Ngura Pilti" and "Ngayuka mamaku ngura ini Makiri," all painted in 2018, are the first hint these might not be what they look like. In fact, they are figurative paintings by indigenous artists from Central Australia that constitute the dazzling new show, APY Lands LA: Central Desert Painters of Australia, through May 30 in Culver City. Presented in partnership with the Australian Consulate-General Los Angeles, it is the largest collection of Australian indigenous art ever shown in the Southland.

Featured image:  Taylor Cooper, "Malara: 1 Wanampi Tjukurpa" 2018. acrylic on linen, 59.8 x 48 inches

YARITJI YOUNG + TJALA ARTS: APY LANDS

Jonathan Goodman's Brooklyn Rail review of APY Lands explores Dreamtime paintings by Central Desert painters of Australia Yaritji Young, The Mitakiki Women's Collaborative and Sylvia Ken. These artists' aesthetic voice renders an ancient artistic tradition anew through exuberance and a freely expressed hand and holds an important place in the global artistic continuum. The energies and vibrancy of the paintings echo throughout the exhibition.

Surfacing: The art of Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy

The oozing amoebic forms, fashioned from resin, that have become signature pieces from Sydney's Dinosaur Designs since the mid-1980s, always seemed to signal a desire to transform into something else. As have their City Art Institute-trained creators, Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy, who established the iconic brand with Liane Rossler in 1985. Now the pair's lesser-known artistic oeuvre, drawn from a shared 30-year studio practice and on display at the Newscastle Art Gallery until 17 February 2019, reveals a modernith aesthetic as seemingly simple and slippery as those early resin forms, moving from intimate and ethereal studies in watercolour and oil (Olsen) to tumescent totemic sculpture and three-dimensional collage (Ormandy).

Rhys Lee: Good Boy and Kevin Bourgeois: Wall of Sound

 In these two shows gallery visitors have the opportunity to view two very different, but very gifted artists. Rhys Lee is an Australian artist in his early forties; this show examples a series of paintings based on a 1970s New York City subway cartoon, made by graffiti artist Mitch 77, of an orange Pluto (the cartoon dog) wearing white gloves and a blue bowtie. Kevin Bourgeois is a New York-based, musically oriented artist whose work here consists of record jackets assembled with pieces taken from different covers.

A Good Boy and a Wall of Sound at Olsen Gruin Gallery

There isn’t much time left to catch one of the best two-person shows on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, or more accurately, two unique, but not so disparate exhibitions; Kevin Bourgeois’ Wall of Sound and Rhys Lee’s Good Boy, both seamlessly coexisting inside Olsen Gruin Gallery and coming down Sunday, November 18th.

"Wall of Sound" by Kevin Bourgeois at Olsen Gruin, New York

Self-taught artist Kevin Bourgeois' solo exhibition, "Wall of Sound" features a curated selection of conceptual record jacket collages that present visuals inspired by Phil Spector's philosophies on sound mixing.

'Rhys Lee: Good Boy' at Olsen Gruin, New York

Melbourne-based painter Rhys Lee comes from a background of street art. His latest, vibrant oil paintings featuring abstracted graffiti-inspired figures in sumptuous "gelato colors" grace the walls of Olsen Gruin in the current solo exhibition, "Good Boy," on view through November 18.

ART COLLECTOR GLOBAL: Q&A WITH TIM OLSEN

With New York Gallery Olsen Gruin hitting the 18-months open mark, Emily Cones-Browne talks to Australian dealer and co-director Tim Olsen about going international.

Extract:
Olsen Gruin has hit the 18-month mark since opening its first doors. What are some of the winning hallmarks the gallery has experienced during the first 18 months ?
The surprising thing about the New York experience is that I had no idea it was going to happen. It was only because my sister was moving her business that we had the opportunity for a pop-up. What began as an experiment was such a resounding success, it felt as though we had a place in the New York art scene.