TIM SUMMERTON Exhibition video
OLSEN GalleryFebruary 2021
Video tour of Tim Summerton 2021 exhibition
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Related exhibition
Tim Summerton Recent Works
Interview with Richard Moorecroft
OLSEN GalleryFebruary 2021
Richard Moorecroft interviews artist Michael Cusack for his exhibition, Kissing the Apple, at OLSEN Gallery
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Michael Cusack Kissing The Apple
A shining light—recent acquisitions 2019–20
Geelong GalleryJanuary 2021
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Gary Heery Video Tour
January 2021Video tour of Gary Heery 2021 exhibition at OLSEN Gallery
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Gary Heery
Portrait of the gallerist
Belle MagazineJanuary 2021
Set above his Sydney gallery yet worlds away from a white cube, Tim Olsen's private domain is an Aladdin's cave of art and objects that paints a revealing picture of his lifelong passions - much like his new memoir.
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The Writers: Tim Olsen
Night Life, ABCWith Dominic Knight
1 January 2021
It's always hard having a famous artist as your father. Tim Olsen knows all about it. He speaks with Dom about his new biography "Son of The Brush", about his life and relationship with his father, the painter John Olsen.
Duration: 24min 33sec
Broadcast: Fri 1 Jan 2021, 10:00pm
Click here to listen
The Great Expectations of the artist's son
Quadrant MagazineMatthew White
30 December 2020
This haptic book, for it is large and weighs in the hand, carries an immense personal burden. A whole life is laid bare: a history of peripatetic childhood, neglect, alcoholism, abandonment, false starts, humiliations, failed marriages, addiction and neglect in turn, dependency, self-deception, relapse, renunciation. All the ingredients for the modern celebrity confessional.
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Tim Olsen: Son of the Brush
a rich lifeChloe Mandryk
24 December 2021
‘Quixotic’ is a go-to and apt term used by author Tim Olsen in ‘Son of the Brush’, a memoir amidst one Australia’s most eminent bohemian families. He muses on the relatable milestones of his life from the politics of the schoolyard, the gamut love runs, sobriety, crafting a career and parenting. The relentless pursuit of an ideal is unique to an individual let alone a clan so the spark in this title is surely the unique accounts of how Tim, John Olsen, Louise Olsen and Valerie Strong have strived for a rich life.
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Tim Olsen: Son of the Brush
Art AlmanacAlice Dingle
21 December 2020
The Olsen name has long been regarded as that of Australian art royalty, with revered artist John Olsen arguably the sovereign. ‘Son of the Brush’ is a frank memoir shedding light on the personal and professional life of the artist’s only son, Tim Olsen. A detailed recount of events traversing the art dealer and gallerist’s early childhood to present day, Olsen’s story is part celebration, part confessional; unfurling the art scene (both nationally and internationally, past and present) and owning his identity and place within it, and within his family.
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Swashbuckler and Son
Australian Book ReviewIan Britain
December 2020
Extract: A voyage round my father’, to quote the title of John Mortimer’s autobiographical play of 1963, has been a popular form of personal memoir in Britain from Edmund Gosse’s Father and Son (1907) to Michael Parkinson’s just-published Like Father, Like Son. The same form produced some of the best Australian writing in the twentieth century, with two assured classics in the case of Germaine Greer’s Daddy, We Hardly Knew You (1989) and Raimond Gaita’s Romulus, My Father (1998). The tradition has continued into the present century with – to list some of the choicest plums – Richard Freadman’s Shadow of Doubt: My father and myself (2003), Sheila Fitzpatrick’s My Father’s Daughter (2010), Jim Davidson’s A Führer for a Father (2017), and Christopher Raja’s Into the Suburbs: A migrant’s story (2020). Mothers in such sagas are far from absent, and they can emerge, though not always, as the more obviously loveable or loving figures. As signalled by most of those titles, however, mothers loom less large over the unfolding narrative. Fathers may not always know or act best, but, partly because of their often tougher, commanding mien, they become irresistibly the centre of attention.
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Tim Olsen: My mother's wise words taught me why we love art
The Sydney Morning Herald, Sunday LifeRobyn Doreian
12 December 2020
Tim Olsen / Occupation Owner Olsen Gallery / Age 58 / Status In a new relationship / Best known for His art gallery
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Great holiday reads, from page-turners to perfect prose
The Sydney Morning HeraldGeorgie Gordon
12 December 2020
Whether at the beach, the park or lazing in bed, these are the books you’ll want to keep returning to over the break.
Non-fiction
Son of the Brush
by Tim Olsen (Allen & Unwin)
Olsen’s memoir about the joys and challenges of growing up in the shadow of his famous artist father, John, is a fascinating read. In addition to all the juicy art world anecdotes, it’s a candid look at his journey from “free range” child to respected art dealer.
Booked up for Summer: Son of the Brush
HIGHLIFE MagazineDecember 2020
Son of the Brush is Tim's memoir, starting with his earliest memories when the family lived in Watsons Bay and ending in 2020 with a bough of COVID-19.
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Soho House online conversation between Maroon 5's Jesse Carmichael and artist Paul Davies
iCloud7 December 2020
Last week, artist and Los Angeles member Paul Davies, whose mural overlooks the rooftop pool at Soho Warehouse, opened a new exhibition at Peter Mendenhall Gallery in Pasadena. To celebrate, Maroon 5’s Jesse Carmichael curated a playlist based on the paintings. Here, the friends discuss how the collaboration came about and the process of translating artworks into a soundscape.
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Son of the Brush: A Memoir by Tim Olsen, behind-the-scenes of the art world
The AustralianAshleigh Wilson
5 December 2020
Tim Olsen gives an insider’s view of the art world and living in the long shadow of his famous father John.
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Zoe Young's Rustic Bowral Cottage is an Artist's Paradise
4 December 2020Welcome to The Makers. Each week, we're celebrating
innovators, artisans and crafters of all types, taking you on a private
tour on their creative spaces.
For this installment, we head to
Bowral in New South Wales, where artist Zoe Young has transformed a
cottage into a creative hub for herself and her family.
Tim Olsen Son of the Brush Review and Interview
Living Arts CanberraBarbie Robinson
2 December 2020
Described as a memoir, Son of the Brush does indeed introduce us to some of the key figures of the art world in Australia in the 20th and 21st century, in the context of the life of the author, son of painter John Olsen.
Listen to the interview here
Image: Tim Olsen at the book launch, AGNSW Photo: Wesley Nel
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HOT OFF THE PRESS
The Sydney Morning HeraldNicole Abadee
5 December 2020
Summer is upon us and the holidays beckon. What better way to further warm the heart than with a good book on the beach?
Son of the Brush, the frank memoir of Tim Olsen, John Olsen’s son, charts his tumultuous life from the highs of mixing with Australia’s artistic and social elite, to the lows of his battles with alcoholism and depression.
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Sophie Cape's exhibition 'Flash Point'
Richard MorecroftNovember 2020
Sophie Cape’s paintings are elemental – seemingly made of fire and snow, earth and blood. And the truth is not far from that; the huge works are impregnated with the ash and soil and bones and metal fragments on the ground in the locations where the works were created. As a past Olympic-level athlete, Sophie’s process is explosively physical, with violently cathartic struggles on the canvas. But as she explains to Richard Morecroft, the controlled mark of her hand is in evidence too, with subtle drawing and mysterious calligraphy.
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Sophie Cape Flash Point
Sophie Cape video tour
November - December 2020Video tour of Sophie Cape's 2020 exhibition at OLSEN Gallery, Woollahra
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Sophie Cape Flash Point