The chosen artist, King Country photographer Sara McIntyre, has a familial link to a Kakanui name.
She will take up residence from Tuesday at a seaside cottage owned by Chris Barnes who has generously offered it for the Forrester residency.
Forrester Gallery director Chloe Searle said McIntyre was a "fabulous artist" and they were thrilled to have her.
"We’re really excited to see what she might bring into this landscape... her photographs are a lot about people and place," Ms Searle said.
McIntyre, a lifelong photographer, said the residency was "incredibly generous" and a "huge privilege".
Ms Searle said the Forrester residency had been years in the making, an initiative supported by former director Warwick Smith.
"So when Chris came along with the offer of a gorgeous cottage at Kakanui, we got together and had a few chats."
Last year Friends of Forrester received a grant from the John Westwood Christie Trust to aid the residency.
The Forrester will also provide exhibition space for works produced during the residency, Ms Searle said.
McIntyre spent childhood holidays in Otago and has done many South Island road trips in her converted van.
She said the timing for the two-month residency at Kakanui was perfect.
"I’ve been taking photographs in Otago for quite a long time and not even quite knowing what to do with them, so this is sort of perfect for me because I can just bring it together."
McIntyre was particularly looking forward to getting a "feel for the place", with Kakanui having a particular personal appeal.
"My great-great-grandfather William Best was the captain of the SS Kakanui, a steamship that went missing at sea in 1891."
The ship and its crew of 19 set off in a storm for Macquarie Island on a rescue mission for sealers who had run out of provisions.
They were never heard of again, McIntyre said.
After securing the residency she did a bit of "fossicking" and found the book on Kakanui Divided by a River, by Dorothy De Main.
"One of the first pages that I turned to, there was a photograph of the Kakanui boat at the Kakanui wharf, and standing on the wharf is my great-great grandfather."
