In Michelle Anderson’s Kanpala, circles of red, orange and yellow bring a place in Western Australia’s Spinifex Country into view. It’s a place she returns to often in paint: Kanpa, the Country where her grandmother was born.
‘I’m always painting Kanpa,’ Anderson said in a conversation published by Vivien Anderson Gallery.
‘Her place.’
Anderson’s painting is among the finalists in the Koori Mail Indigenous Art Award, which opens tomorrow (Saturday, November 7) at Lismore Regional Gallery with $23,000 in prizes.
The biennial award, run by the gallery and the Koori Mail, brings together work by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from across Australia. There are 36 finalists for the major award and five for the youth prize, with work spanning painting, ceramics, sculpture, photography, moving image and fibre art.
The major prize has doubled since 2024 to $20,000. The youth award, open to artists aged 18 to 25, is worth $3,000. This year’s guest judge is Yorta Yorta curator Dr Kimberley Moulton.
‘This award demonstrates that nationally significant contemporary art does not have to be centred in a capital city,’ gallery director Susi Muddiman said.
The free opening at 11 Rural Street starts with a Welcome to Country at 2.30pm. Speeches and the prize announcement follow at 2.45pm, with live music from Blak Moon Society at 3.30pm.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and the opening will be Auslan interpreted. No bookings are required. The exhibition runs until February 14, 2027.
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