Hanna Kay

Hanna Kay is an internationally established artist born in Israel in 1947, trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

She lived a decade in New York before settling in Australia in 1990, and moved to the Upper Hunter in 2000.

Her work explores dislocation, exile, heritage and migration, often drawing on the Murrurundi landscape itself, centred on recurring motifs of grasses and rocks - frequently rendered at an unusually large, panoramic scale, with single oil-on-paper works stretching many metres wide.

She holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Sydney, for which her research project "Shifting Horizons" took her to China, resulting in touring exhibitions across Australia and China.

In 2012 she travelled to Beijing with fellow artists Suzanne Archer and Sarah Tomasetti, exhibiting at the Beijing Art Space in a show opened by the Australian High Commissioner.

Her touring exhibition Undertow, commissioned by Maitland Regional Art Gallery to explore Jewish migration to Australia, toured regional galleries and museums for four years from 2009.

Her work is held in major collections including the National Gallery of Victoria and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

See more of her work on her website or Instagram, or read her artist’s statement via the Janet Clayton Gallery.