The National Art School (NAS) has today announced a major new exhibition, The Neighbour at the Gate, presented 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, upon First Nations and Asian Australian peoples, highlighting the historical and contemporary parallels of these communities.

The Neighbour at the Gate brings together three First Nations artists and three Asian Australian artists, presenting commissioned and existing works. These artists include: Malaysian-born artist and educator Jacky Cheng whose practice weaves narratives of her ancestral experiences with her new found home; Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson, an Iranian-Australian researcher and video artist exploring inherited stories and post-memory felt by displaced communities; 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 who challenges concepts of identity through the intersection of language and objects; James Nguyen, a Vietnamese born artist exploring the Vietnamese Australian experience of displacement and diaspora through his incisive and poetic art making; and James Tylor, looking at Australian cultural representations through the perspectives of his mixed heritage comprising Nunga (Kaurna Miyurna), Māori (Te Arawa) and European ancestry.