EXHIBITION DATES: Friday 11 June – Saturday 7 August 2021
EXHIBITION LOCATION: NAS Gallery
OPENING NIGHT: Thursday 10 June, 6–9pm
OPENING HOURS: Monday–Saturday, 11am–5pm
CURATORS: Steven Alderton and William Wright (posthumously)

Goya’s Dog begins in Spain during the mid-1950’s when John Olsen experienced significant influences of Spanish culture, poetry and music. That time opened a door for the young, emerging Olsen to explore a darker, and perhaps a more vulnerable side, to his personality and experience. Olsen returned to Sydney and then back again to Spain in the mid-1960’s where his palette became dynamic and bold. The exhibition also features Olsen’s work from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. A new and vitally urban Australian ‘voice’ emerged during this time, the voice of the irrepressible ‘larrikin’ that provided such an irreverent vista of this crazy country of ours. The Olsen landscape became like a theatre or a stage; where some human drama is taking place. It is vivacious, teeming with a sort of metaphysical life – in parallel with and embracing real life, ‘making a picture a kind of narrative’, and about paintings being created in a process of evolution.

John Olsen: Goya’s Dog Artists x Artists
NAS Gallery
$10 + booking fee | Limited spaces available

BOOK HERE

Drawing on the central importance of critical dialogue, friendship and inspiration shared between fellow artists our John Olsen: Goya’s Dog Artists x Artists talk series brings leading Australian artists into the NAS Gallery to talk about their interpretations, experiences and interactions with the work of Dr John Olsen AO OBE.

Each speaker presents a very different perspective on, and has a different relationship with, Dr John Olsen AO OBE and his work making for an exciting and varied program.

Steven Alderton x John Olsen 

Steven Alderton is the curator of the John Olsen: Goya’s Dog exhibition, an exhibition born out of an ongoing conversation and correspondence between the late William ‘Bill’ Wright and John Olsen. Steven is currently the Director and CEO of the National Art School with over 25 years’ experience in the visual arts and education as an artist, curator and director.

Steven Alderton has curated exhibitions by Ricky Swallow, Patricia Piccinini, Ian Fairweather, Margaret Olley, Nicholas Harding, Janet Laurence and Tracey Moffatt. Previous roles include curator and gallery director roles with many regional art galleries, including Director of Programs, Exhibitions and Cultural Collections at the Australian Museum; Director Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre; Director Lismore Regional Gallery; Manager Bundaberg Arts Centre; Director Redland Art Gallery; Curator Wagga Wagga City Art Gallery and Events Manager at the Institute of Modern Art. Steven established an artist run initiative and artist studios just after leaving Art College and is committed to developing and fostering emerging artists and sustaining mid to late career artists’ practice. Steven was recently a finalist in the 2021 Glover Prize for contemporary landscape painting of Tasmania.

Image: John Olsen, Reflections on Goya’s dog I, 2021, acrylic on Belgian linen, 140 x 150 cm, collection of the artist. Courtesy of Olsen Gallery

John Olsen: Goya’s Dog Artists x Artists
NAS Gallery
$10 + booking fee | Limited spaces available

BOOK HERE

Drawing on the central importance of critical dialogue, friendship and inspiration shared between fellow artists our John Olsen: Goya’s Dog Artists x Artists talk series brings leading Australian artists into the NAS Gallery to talk about their interpretations, experiences and interactions with the work of Dr John Olsen AO OBE.

Each speaker presents a very different perspective on, and has a different relationship with, Dr John Olsen AO OBE and his work making for an exciting and varied program.

Janet Lawrence x John Olsen

Janet Laurence is a leading Sydney-based artist who exhibits nationally and internationally. Her practice examines our physical, cultural and conflicted relationship with the natural world. Working across painting, sculpture, installation, photography and video she creates immersive environments that navigate the interconnections between organic elements and systems of nature. Within the recognised threat of climate change, she explores what it might mean to heal the natural environment, fusing this with a sense of communal loss and searching for connection with powerful life forces.

Her work is included in museum, university, corporate and private collections as well as within architectural and landscaped public places. In 2019 she had a major solo survey exhibition at the MCA and in 2020 at the Yu Hsui Museum of Art in Taiwan. She is the 2021 Recipient of the Antarctic Fellowship awaiting her residency there.

Image: John Olsen, Spanish encounter, 1960, oil on hardboard (triptych), 183 x 366 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Purchased 1960

John Olsen: Goya’s Dog Artists x Artists
NAS Gallery
$10 + booking fee | Limited spaces available

BOOK HERE

Drawing on the central importance of critical dialogue, friendship and inspiration shared between fellow artists our John Olsen: Goya’s Dog Artists x Artists talk series brings leading Australian artists into the NAS Gallery to talk about their interpretations, experiences and interactions with the work of Dr John Olsen AO OBE.

Each speaker presents a very different perspective on, and has a different relationship with, Dr John Olsen AO OBE and his work making for an exciting and varied program.

James Drinkwater x John Olsen

James Drinkwater is a Newcastle-based artist whose practice traverses painting, sculpture, assemblage and collage. Drinkwater makes work about place, intimacy and memory, using abstraction, colour and mark-making for transmission of these preoccupations. His works explore the connections between art, cultural and personal histories.

Drinkwater studied at the National Art School, Sydney, before moving to Melbourne and then Germany. His work is held in major public and private collections both nationally and internationally, including the Macquarie Group Collection, Artbank, Allens, the Newcastle Art Gallery, and private collections in New York, Singapore, Germany and the UK. In 2014 Drinkwater won the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship.

Image: John Olsen, The donkey man, 1968, mixed media on paper, 49 x 65 cm, Private collection