Painting Life: Margaret Olley and Works from the Collection

21 March 2025 - 31 August 2025

Ben Quilty b.1973
Margaret Olley 2011
oil on linen, 170 x 150 cm
Purchased with funds from Principal Donors Tim Fairfax AC and Gina Fairfax AC and from Donors the Margaret Olley Art Trust, the Estate of Kenneth Fizzell and Eugene McGrath through the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation Ltd., an anonymous donor, Friends of Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret, Olley Art Centre Inc., Philip Bacon AO, the Nelson Meers Foundation, Liz and Graeme Wikman, Michael Hudson and supporters of the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation Acquisition Appeal, 2025
Tweed Regional Gallery collection
© The artist

Painting Life: Margaret Olley and Works from the Collection celebrates vibrant still life paintings by Margaret Olley (1923–2011) in the Tweed Regional Gallery collection, together with contemporary responses to Olley’s home/studio re-creation that is on permanent display at the Margaret Olley Art Centre.

The contemporary responses to Margaret Olley’s home/studio re-creation provide a fascinating insight to Olley’s enduring legacy, further shaping the ongoing narrative around Australia’s most celebrated painter of still life.

Alongside Olley’s still life paintings the exhibition also features the Gallery’s recent acquisition Margaret Olley 2011 by Ben Quilty. Together with this Archibald Prize-winning portrait and on display for the first time, Painting Life showcases a suite of 11 still life paintings by Quilty paying homage to his life-changing mentor, friend, and muse.