An ode to Olley

THE latest exhibition in an exclusive series inspired by Margaret Olley and her legacy opened at the Tweed Regional Gallery last week.

Ode: Margaret Olley and Sally Anderson brings together still life paintings by Olley spanning four decades, including masterworks such as Banksia 1970 (Maitland Regional Art Gallery), works from the Art Gallery of NSW and rarely seen pieces from private collections.

Sydney-based artist Sally Anderson created a new body of work as part of her 2025 residency at the Nancy Fairfax Artist in Residence Studio.

Anderson said her approach was to juxtapose Olley’s objects with her own and invites audiences to reconsider Olley’s still life practice in a new light.

“I’ve deliberately positioned objects borrowed from Olley’s home studio re-creation alongside personally significant items within my compositions to give them new context and meaning,” Anderson said.

“I find the arrangement of Olley’s home studio re-creation completely fascinating – the layers of objects, surfaces, textiles, smells.

“I think a lot about arranging; how we arrange thoughts, time, memories, households, feelings, gardens, furniture, objects, colour – and how rearranging the order of things ultimately shifts meaning, revealing new truths, narratives, and histories.

Gallery Director Ingrid Hedgcock said the exhibition highlights Olley’s continuing influence on contemporary artists.

“Seeing these works alongside Anderson’s bold interchanges between abstraction and representation, we bear witness to Olley’s continuing influence as one of Australia’s most significant painters of still life and interiors,” Hedgcock said.

“A lot of people look at the re-creation and see chaos, but to Olley it was a carefully gathered world of subject matter for her paintings.”

The exhibition will run until March 8, 2026. Sally Anderson in Conversation with Professor Lisa Slade will take place on Friday, September 19, at 6 pm.

For tickets, visit gallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au/whats-on