The Neighbour at the Gate

The National Art School (NAS) presents a major new exhibition, The Neighbour at the Gate, premiering at NAS Galleries from 11 July 2025 – 18 October 2025.

Led by Wardandi (Nyoongar) and Badimaya (Yamatji) woman and senior curator Clothilde Bullen, and a curatorium comprising Micheal Do, senior curator of contemporary art at the Sydney Opera House, and Whadjuk Balladong and Wilman Noongar artist and curator Zali Morgan, this world premiere un-knits and unravels the impacts of colonisation, race and ethnicity between and within First Nations and Asian Australian peoples, whilst highlighting the contemporary and historical parallels and connections between these communities.

The Neighbour at the Gate will bring together three First Nations artists and three Asian Australian artists, presenting new commissions and existing works. These artists include: Dennis Golding, a Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay man whose work critiques the social, political and cultural representations of race and identity; Larrakia, Wardaman and Karajarri woman Jenna Lee, exploring how the intersection of language and objects creates or challenges the concept of identity; James Tylor, whose practice explores Australian cultural representations through the perspectives of his mixed heritage comprising Nunga (Kaurna Miyurna), Māori (Te Arawa) and European ancestry; Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson, an Iranian-Australian researcher and video artist exploring inherited stories and post-memory felt by displaced communities; James Nguyen, a Vietnamese born artist examining strategies of decolonisation and interrogating the politics of family history, displacement and diaspora; and Malaysian-born artist and educator Jacky Cheng whose practice weaves narratives from her native experiences with her new found home.

The Neighbour at the Gate also questions how immigration is framed in Australia’s post-colonial context and how First Nations and Asian Australian communities navigate identity and belonging in the wake of this convergence of cultural interaction and resistance.

The Neighbour at the Gate is a commissioned exhibition project for the National Art School, proudly supported by the NSW Government through Blockbusters Funding initiative. The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication, learning and education framework and public program. Further details will be announced in 2025.

EXHIBITION DATES:

Friday 11 July – Saturday 18 October 2025

11am – 5pm Monday to Saturday

NAS Gallery

Free admission

CURATORS

Clothilde Bullen

Wardandi and Badimaya curator, writer and advocate Clothilde Bullen broke new ground as the inaugural Lead, Cultural Strategy and Development for Edith Cowan University, Boorloo (Perth) and has since transitioned into the role of Manager Art, Culture and Collections after completing a new Cultural Narrative framework and strategy for the university. Bullen previously worked with the Art Gallery of Western Australia where she has served on their executive team as the Senior Curator and Head of Indigenous Programs, after 5 years at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art Australia as their inaugural Senior Curator First Nations art. She is currently Co‐Chair of Indigenous Voices, a critical writing mentoring program for First Nations writers as well as a board member of the UNESCO International Association of Art Critics (Australian chapter) and Chair of the Board of the National Association for the Visual Arts.

Michael Do

Micheal Do is a curator, writer, programmer and broadcaster. In his current role as Senior Curator, Contemporary Art of the Sydney Opera House, Do has commissioned site specific installations and performance works by artists Megan Cope, Cherine Fahd, Lauren Brincat, Angela Goh, James Nguyen, Victoria Pham, Mel O’ Callaghan and Frances Barrett. His recent curatorial projects include Primavera 2022: Young Australian Artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Soft Core national touring exhibition from 2016–19, Not Niwe, Not Nieuw, Not Neu (2017), Lee Kun Yong: Equal Area (2018, co-curated with Mikala Tai) and The Invisible Hand (2019) for 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, and 5X5: The Artist and The Patron (2018) for Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest. Do has written for artist and exhibition catalogues, art magazines including Art Collector Australia, Art Monthly Australasia, Art Review Asia, and Artist Profile Magazine, and recently hosted a season of The Art Show on ABC Radio National.

Zali Morgan

Zali Morgan is a Noongar woman with ancestral connections to Whadjuk, Balladong, and Wilman Boodjar. She was born and raised near Wooditchup on Wardandi Boodjar and is now based near Boorloo / Perth. As an artist, curator, and cultural worker, Morgan has a deep passion for working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, particularly uplifting Noongar artistic practices. With a keen interest in modes of decolonising, she has worked closely with private and institutional collections, including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Wesfarmers Arts, and the Berndt Museum of Anthropology.

ARTISTS

Jacky Cheng

Born 1977, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Lives and works Yawuru Country, Broome, Western Australia

Born in Malaysia of Chinese heritage, Jacky Cheng weaves narratives and materials drawn from her familial and cultural experiences, and maps these to the esoteric and social constructs of her physical environment and its collective surroundings. Deeply rooted in her own bi-cultural experience, a focus of Cheng’s work her is an emergence of identity and awareness through cultural activities, nostalgia and intergenerational relationships. Her predominant choice of medium reflects an intense relationship through methodologies and manipulation of papers and fibres in sculpture and installation.

Cheng’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including in the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial in 2024 at Fremantle Art Centre, the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 2023, and The Geumgang Nature Art Biennale in South Korea in 2020. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including the 46th Fremantle Print Award in 2023, The John Stringer Prize in 2022 and The Jury Art Prize in 2021.

Jenna Lee

Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman and KarraJarri peoples
Born 1992 Kamberri/Canberra. Lives and works Naarm/Melbourne

Jenna Lee’s practice explores language, materiality, and the transformation of inherited narratives. Intrigued by what is lost in translation, she examines the spaces between words, capturing overlooked subtleties. Through immersive installations, works on paper, sculpture, and multimedia, Lee delves into the scars of history and cultural legacies. By deconstructing and reconstructing materials that echo the past, she reveals hidden stories and suppressed memories. Lee’s work reimagines dormant narratives, inviting reflection on the complexities of inherited histories. Transformation is central to her practice, as she reinterprets historical narratives to uncover unseen forces shaping identity and collective memory, creating space for new meanings to emerge.

Lee’s work has been showcased in national and international institutions including the National Gallery of Victoria, TarraWarra Museum of Art, and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. She is represented by MARS Gallery in Naarm/Melbourne.

Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson

Born 1996, Boorloo/Perth. Lives and works Boorloo/Perth

Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson is an Iranian-Australian video artist, researcher, and director whose work is centered within communal and collaborative social practice. Her research navigates inherited stories and postmemory felt by displaced community through the poetics of the moving image. She invites viewers to become the ‘witness’ rather than the ‘passive bystander’, examining empathy in film poems, and immersive multi-media experiences facilitating a critical discussion surrounding empathy, custodianship, compassion, and social change.

Eshraghian-Haakansson has collaborated with various art organisations including Spaced, Next Wave, Victoria Park Community Centre, PICA, Community Arts Network, Immerse Australia, Co3 Dance Contemporary and Encounter theatre. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and has received numerous awards such as the Ellen José Art Prize in 2022, the Invitation Art Prize and the 14th Arte Laguna Special Prize Award in 2020 and the Dr. Harold Schenberg Art Prize in 2018. In 2022, she was a recipient of the inaugural Early-Career Creative and Performance Leadership Fellowship 2022 with the Forrest Research Foundation.

James Nguyen

Born 1982, Bảo Lộc, Việt Nam. Lives and works Naarm/Melbourne

James Nguyen was born in Bảo Lộc, Việt Nam. He is currently based in Murrumbeena (close to where the Boyds once ran their pottery studios). Nguyen’s work engages with reMatriation, decolonial thinking and language-brokering. He makes memes, performances, film, sculpture and installation etc, drawing attention to the diasporic absurd.

Nguyen has shown both ground-breaking and lacklustre work at institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Fairfield City Museum and Gallery, and Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art.

Dennis Golding

Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay people
Born 1989, Gadigal Country, Sydney. Lives and works Gadigal Country, Sydney

Dennis Golding was raised on Gadigal Country in Sydney and stems from the Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay of Northwest NSW and Biripi of Mid-north coast of NSW. His work critiques the social, political, and cultural representations of race and identity, drawing from his own experiences living in urban environments and through childhood memories.

Golding graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at UNSW Art & Design in 2019 and now works independently as an artist and curator. His work has been exhibited at major institutions including the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney Living Museums, and Carriageworks, and has been commissioned for various public art installations around Sydney. In 2020, he was awarded the Create NSW Visual Arts Fellowship.

James Tylor

Kaurna, Thura-Yura language region
Born 1986, Latje Latje/Barkindji Country, Mildura, Victoria. Lives and works Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country, Kamberri/Canberra

James Tylor is a multi-disciplinary who explores Australian environment, culture and social history, through photography, video, painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, sound, scents and food. He explores Australian cultural representations through the perspectives of his multicultural heritage comprising Nunga (Kaurna Miyurna), Māori (Te Arawa) and European (English, Scottish, Irish, Dutch and Norwegian) ancestry. Tylor’s work focuses largely on the history of 19th century Australia and its continual effect on present day issues surrounding cultural identity and the environment. His research, writing and artistic practice has focused most specifically on Kaurna indigenous culture from the Adelaide Plains region of South Australia and more broadly European colonial history in Southern Australia. His practice also explores Australian indigenous plants and the environmental landscape of Southern Australia.

Tylor’s work has been exhibited widely nationally and internationally and is held in major collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of NSW, Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and the Kluge Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum in Charlottesville, USA.