Jackie Saunders
Visual Artist, Singer
Jackie Saunders is a contemporary Ngarrindjeri and Wirangu artist living on Kaurna land. Jackie describes herself as ‘the daughter of a saltwater woman and a desert dwelling man’. Jackie has been working at Tutti Arts since 2007 as both a performer and a visual artist.
Jackie had a lead role in a number of major productions including the Tutti Arts/Interact Theatre co-production of Tutti’s Northern Lights Southern Cross in Minneapolis USA (2009). In 2010, Jackie won a NAIDOC award for her achievements in the Arts. Between 2012 and 2019 Jackie was a member of the all-female pop group The Sisters of Invention.
In 2020 Jackie made the decision to focus on her painting. Her work draws on her strong sense of family and culture. It reflects her connections to both the human and natural world, exploring different weathers – internal and external – and the shape and movement of land, light and water.
Jackie has an impressive exhibition history with her work featured in exhibitions presented by ACE Open, Guildhouse, Centre for Creative Health, Adelaide Festival Centre, Gallery M and more. In 2020 Jackie won the Dawn Slade-Faull Award, which enabled her to present her debut solo exhibition, ‘Salt & Sand’. In 2022, Jackie was part of Tutti Arts ‘Reaching Out’ project in which she partnered with Laura Wills to present the exhibition ‘Mineral Lines’ at the South Australian Museum. Jackie presented a solo exhibition ‘Land, Light and Water’ in the 2023 Tarnanthi Festival and from this her artwork ‘Desert Sundown (Alice Springs)’ was acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2024 – a major milestone in Jackie’s career.
