The National Art School, Artspace and Create NSW are pleased to announce the finalists for the NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship (NSW VAEF): Eddie Abd, Chun Yin Rainbow Chan, Cindy Yuen-Zhe Chen, Joe Wilson and Chanelle Collier, Emily Parsons-Lord, and Genevieve Felix Reynolds.

This edition of the Fellowship will be presented in partnership with NAS and exhibited at the NAS Gallery in Darlinghurst, while Artspace’s home at The Gunnery undergoes redevelopment. NAS Gallery Coordinator, Scott Elliot, will be joining Artspace’s Alexie Glass-Kantor and Elyse Goldfinch to develop the Fellowship exhibition.

Due to the COVID-19 lockdown across NSW, the exhibition of work by the 2021 finalists will be presented in 2022. We look forward to sharing the exhibition at NAS in 2022 and the Fellowship returning to Artspace from 2023.

NSW VAEF has evolved over the past 100 years into a key exhibition for profiling the dynamism and breadth of emerging contemporary artistic practice in NSW. Valued at $30,000, the Fellowship is offered by the NSW Government through Create NSW to enable a visual artist early in their career to undertake a self-directed program of professional development.

Each year, Create NSW convenes a judging panel of esteemed colleagues to determine the finalists, providing insight and passion to assess the highly competitive round of proposals.

The curators said:
​‘Artspace and the National Art School are thrilled to be working together to curate the NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship at the NAS Gallery in 2022. Alongside our collaborators at Create NSW, we share a commitment to supporting generations of emerging artists and we are thrilled to present this important award.

The outstanding finalists represent the vibrant and diverse artistic community across NSW. As a curatorium we will offer professional development through curatorial advocacy and engagement, building upon relationships to bring artists, ideas and audiences together for this highly anticipated exhibition.

While the world continues to be disrupted by COVID-19 we look forward to being able to celebrate the practices of these seven emerging artists. We warmly congratulate all the finalists and look forward to welcoming audiences to the NAS Gallery in 2022.’