Kangaroo Island Artworks Gallery

KI Easter Art Exhibition 2023

In 2023, the KI Easter Art Exhibition theme is Precious Moments and features the Diana Keir Art Award of $10,000

Judges Nici Cumpston and Olga Sankey have made their choices and the winners are:

Diana Keir Art Award, ‘Precious Moments’

Sponsored by the patrons of the Diana Keir Foundation

Lori Smith, Staring at the sun
Artist’s statement: Helga is sitting on Baudin Beach the day that her husband of 60 years had died. Her deeply contemplative mood is reflective of the precious moments of awakening that occur after such life-changing events – those profound moments of clarity and insight where things come into perspective and priorities shift.
Second prize: Jennifer Macauley, Suddenly the sea, oil
Highly commended: Sally Schonfeldt and Michele Wilkie, Whispering between islands, multimedia installation
Special mention: Lauren Alexander, Chapman River calm, acrylic and oil on canvas

Diana Keir Art Award minor prizes courtesy of: Harrold & Kite, Lifetime Private Retreats, Kangaroo Island Ocean Safari


Current Works – 2D

Prizes courtesy of: Geoff Rischbieth, Terry White Pharmacy, Ingram’s Home Hardware, Artists Collective KI, Josephine & Marc Newton, Fine Art Kangaroo Island

First prize: Ria Byass, It’s been a good year – Cactus series #2, oilpaint on board
Second prize: Cecelia Gunnarsson, On top of Bates Road, oil on canvas
Highly commended: Sarah Northcott, Fleeting (from the Passenger Series) acrylic, gouache, ink on board acrylic, gouache, ink on board
Highly commended: Mishka Ammann, Glimpse of the river, oil on canvas

Current Works – 3D

Prizes courtesy of: Roger & Helen Salkeld, Harrold & Kite, and Kangaroo Island Ocean Safari

First prize: Chris Guthleben, Three of a kind, group of three horsehair, feathers and fern Raku pots
Second prize: Mark Russell, Karatta veteran, steel and copper
Highly commended: Dave Clarke, Eagle, steel


Current Works – photographs and digital art

Prizes courtesy of: private donors, Artists Collective KI in memory of Dorothy Stubbs, and Little Sahara Adventure Centre

First prize: Jack McAvoy, March 6, photography – film
Second prize: Quentin Chester, Standing ground, photograph

Ros Johnsson Floral Award sponsored by Kangaroo Island Gallery

Michele Lane, The flourishing, etching with hand-colouring

Categories for younger people

Many thanks to sponsors of the children and youth sections: Kingscote Gift Shop (art supplies), Michele Lane (studio workshop) and private donors (cash)

Children, under 9 years

First prize: Ryder Buick, Penguins of Penneshaw, drawing
Second prize: Freddy McAvoy Kus, Penneshaw, acrylic and crayon on paper

Children, 9−12 years

First prize: Lahaina Mitra Vyas, Paired for life, oil on canvas
Second prize: Piper Ray Binsted, Aware, watercolour, tissue collage

Youth 13–16 years

First prize: Clover Marnika, Merged portrait, charcoal/pencil
Second prize: Polina Fetisova, Bow and sword, digital art

The prize, the judges, and more
When Kangaroo Island artist and identity Diana Keir died in 2019, the island’s artistic community lost one of its shining lights. Diana’s friend since childhood, Alexandra McCarthy, resolved to ensure that Diana’s artistic legacy lived on by supporting her favourite event.

Alex has established the Diana Keir Art Award, a biennial prize for the KI Easter Art Exhibition to honour and pay tribute to this lively and eccentric character who contributed so much to Kangaroo Island art. The prize is funded by a corpus, under the auspices of Foundation SA, to award $10,000 every two years.

Supporting the drive to encourage artists and maintain high standards, the Art Gallery of South Australia commits one of the two judges and has since 2014. For the 2023 exhibition we are honoured to welcome two respected artists as judges:

– Nici Cumpston, Artistic Director of Tarnanthi and Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art who is also a practicing artist/photographer.

– Olga Sankey, a practising artist with interests in printmaking and digital art, and a retired senior visual arts lecturer (University of South Australia). As a child, Olga lived for several years on Kangaroo Island at Cape du Couedic while her father, noted artist Voitre Marek, was lighthousekeeper.