Chapel Hill Horizons Art Prize 2025 Winner
Stephanie Radok “It’s Morning!”
Stephanie Radok’s painting was selected by esteemed judges, Adele Sliuzas, Maria Zagala, and Michael Fragos, and announced on 3rd August, 2025 at the Horizons Art Prize Opening Exhibition at Chapel Hill. Painted on unstretched canvas, “It’s Morning!” features fragments of mica, collected during Radok’s local walks, and applied to the reverse side of the canvas, adding texture and connection to place. The work now forms a permanent part of Chapel Hill’s art collection, displayed proudly in the chapel’s cellar door.
Artist’s Statement
“Horizons draw me in, and I make drawings of them which may become paintings or prints. Every horizon is a place of stillness and possibility. The title of this work is an enduring memory of the words my son used to exclaim with wonder and delight when he was little and came to wake me up. It’s also about dawning mornings, surfing mornings, farmers market mornings, misty mornings, and those when, for a moment, the sun lights up a tree.”
Judge’s Comments
“Subtle, poetic, and evocative, Stephanie Radok’s It’s Morning! depicts a large tree against a delicately rendered landscape. The three horizon bands suggest the ever-present landscape of a frosty morning. Her spontaneous mark-making distills the essence of that experience, with the white paint on the unprimed canvas conveying the chill of frost. Radok’s humble and direct painting sings with quiet intensity.”
– Maria Zagala, Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, Art Gallery of South Australia
“I love the evocative nature of Stephanie’s painting—it makes me feel the frosty morning air on my fingertips. The painting looks amazing in the chapel; the arbour of the tree mirrors the building’s architecture while referencing the surrounding landscape.”
– Adele Sliuzas, Arts Writer, Curator and Emerging Textiles Artist, The Mill Adelaide
“What I adored about Stephanie’s painting was its gentle and pure nature. It calmly whispers to you, giving you the confidence and excitement to embrace a new day.”
– Michael Fragos, Chief Winemaker, Chapel Hill Winery
About the Artist
Stephanie Radok is a South Australian artist and writer whose practice spans drawing, painting, and printmaking. She studied at art schools in Canberra and Adelaide and has exhibited extensively for over three decades.
Her major survey exhibition, The Sublingual Museum (2011), was held at the Flinders University Art Museum, pairing her work with selected pieces from the university’s collection.
Recent solo exhibitions include:
- Tree Stories (2023) – Urrbrae House Museum
- Inside A Book (2025) – Institute Gallery, State Library of South Australia
Radok is also the author of three non-fiction books published by Wakefield Press:
- An Opening: Twelve Love Stories About Art (2012)
- Becoming A Bird: Untold Stories About Art (2021)
- Under the Bed / Inventories 2020–2022 (2025)
Her works are held in several major collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Flinders University Museum of Art, Geelong Gallery, and the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Horizons Art Prize High Commendation
Elisabeth Blomberg “Where the Earth Kisses the Sky”
Elisabeth Blomberg’s entry “Where the Earth Kisses the Sky” was also recognised at the Exhibition Opening, receiving a High Commendation from the judges.
Zagala commented, “The judges were impressed with Elisabeth’s weaving, for its technical mastery and ability to communicate a sense of vitality and the rhythms of the seasons. Its composition dramatically contrasts the earth and sky.”
Artist’s Statement
“This weaving is an ode to McLaren Vale region – my home and forever muse. A vibrant land full of rolling hills, green grass, burgundy vines stretching into the distance, soft ochre earth and wet soil. Mornings of blue, pale yellow and coral sky. Pink, purple and blazing orange sunsets. White clouds and silver thunderstorms.
Just like us she moves and grows in cycles. A reminder that nothing stays the same. Going inward to rest, dropping her leaves, drying her vines, cooling her breathe and gathering her energy. Then once again reaching up and out, touching and inviting play with her surroundings, one more year wiser, ever listening, ever becoming.
This weaving is a love letter to our Mother Earth. It carries the rhythm of the land
and the cycles that shape us – the slow, sacred spirals of growth, loss, rest and return. It weaves a future where stories of the land, carried through Indigenous art, are shared across the region – inviting both locals and travellers to pause, listen, and bear witness to the wisdom held in Country.”
About the Artist
Elisabeth is an Indigenous artist whose work is a journey of honouring the connection between ancestors, land and the stories it holds. Through the mediums of weaving and painting, she channels wisdom passed down.
