The National Art School (NAS) 2024 Grad Show is underway, showcasing bold new work by 155 graduates from the Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) program. All disciplines are represented; painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, photomedia and printmaking.
Running until 15 December 2024, it is a rare chance to discover the next generation of emerging Australian artists and buy some work at a very affordable price point.
Many of the artists will graduate and go on to postgraduate study, or work as artists either full time or on the side of other jobs. There are also many students who are finishing the degree later in their working life, completing the course after years of working in the arts, art- adjacent, or having done something completely different with most of their adult life.
It is that smorgasbord of age and experience, of craft and technique and expression, which makes the degree such a formative experience and the grad show always so exciting, full of talent and genuinely novel art.
For this year’s presentation, NAS Curators Katrina Cashman and Lucy Latella have selected highlight artworks by each BFA graduate from their final bodies of work. An eclectic exhibition presented across the NAS Gallery and Rayner Hoff Project Space, this year’s exhibition spans a diverse range of mediums from found objects, marble, bronze and textiles, to video, wearable art and inflatable.
To graduate from the NAS is to come away with a degree from Australia’s leading fine art school, which sits at the forefront of contemporary practice, and has become a cornerstone of Sydney’s cultural calendar. Whatever each student ends up doing, it will have been a formative experience which will shape the rest of their lives.
The show attracts gallerists, collectors and art lovers year after year without fail.
Visitors to the Grad Show are also invited to explore the art school campus and encounter hundreds of further artworks produced by the students throughout the year in dynamic self-curated installations across the artist studios.
When we asked graduate Megan McKenzie at the opening what she’ll be doing next, she told Irresistible, “I’m going to be starting as a studio artist at Kil.n.it in Glebe, and I’m going to carrying on working through this spherical form, engaging with it and thinking about how we make meaning out of forms that are so familiar but don’t give us much didactic detail about what they are,” she said, “It’s really interesting how we perceive things and how we engage with form that is made up of multiple parts. I’m very interested in how we as humans simultaneously exist in multiple ways. There’s a familiarity to my work here, but no push to agree with what it is. It’s an interesting marker that prompts us to make meaning out of what we are looking at, from what we already know as humans and as individuals.”
We went on to ask her about what is was likely completing her undergrad at NAS. “Honestly, the ceramic department is amazing. I’m so thrilled that I had the chance to work with the people that I have. There’s been so much support. Louise Boscacci is amazing. We had a lot of access to Lynda Draper and Jo the tech was brilliant. The facilities are wonderful. There’s just nothing like it. I couldn’t speak more highly of it.”
The NAS graduates join an impressive legacy of alumni who have gone on to become some of Australia’s most well known and successful artists, from Margaret Olley, Max Dupain and John Olsen, and more recently, Mitch Cairns, Karla Dickens, Coen Young, Juz Kitson, Eliza Goss and Guido Maestri.
Simon Cooper, Interim Director and CEO, National Art School, said: “Following the successful 2024 NAS Postgrad Show, the Grad Show is a celebration of the vibrant creativity and talent of Australia’s next generation of emerging artists from our undergraduate program. This exhibition not only showcases the diverse and ambitious works of 155 rising artists but also offers a rare opportunity to engage and meet with the artists at the launch of their careers.”
EXHIBITION AND EVENT DETAILS
2024 Grad Show
Exhibition dates: 6 December – 15 December 2024 National Art School, 156 Forbes St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010
For more information visit nas.edu.au
