H I S T O R Y   Born in Sydney, JIM OLSSON quit school at the age of 15 to enrol in the National Art School. He worked in publishing and advertising in Asia and North America before carrying on further studies in electronic media at Tyerson Institute, Toronto.   In 1972, he returned to Australia and in 1988 held his first one-man show in Brisbane. Since then he has participated in the usual number of mixed exhibitions (including Amserdam in 1995) and held another 28 one-man shows, both here and overseas.   In 1993, QPAT sponsored a one-man show which toured nationally and internationally.   Olsson is represented in private and corporate collections in Ausgralia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, UK, USA, Italy, Germany, Singapore, Switzerland and The Netherlands.
	A R T I S T ' S   S T A T E M E N T   People sometimes ask, "What do you call yourself?" I'd like to say something fashionable and politically correct like, I'm a mixed media neO-realist... or, maybe, a surrealist - instead I tell them I'm a naive artist and, having been labelled, most people nod and walk away.   Critics, curators and academics usually snigger... and walk away.   Some of today's sophisticates reckon naives are simply out of step with the real world and, on the cutting edge of high art and gibberish where they are tap dancing, a dog turd is 'found' sculpture, graphitti is art, noise is music, movement is dance and a telephone book is literature. I agree with expatriate NY art critic Robert Hughes who labelled it a deadend trip not worth taking!   The major influence in my life is rum!
	Like most Australians, I love the beach. I wanted to call this series Mad Dogs & Melanomas but the Cancer Fund got a bit toey so I condensed it to Mado and Me. The thematic premise is: at the beach, people remove their clothes then hide behind dark glasses. Behind those designer shades young men are checking out young women; young women are checking out young women; old men are checking out young women and young women are checking out young men. Some would argue they are merely protecting their eyes from ultraviolet radiation, but we know they're lying! If it wasn't for the crash of the surf, the loudest noise on any beach would be the click of eyeballs!
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