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Alumna Jeneen Frei Njootli Takes Home the Contemporary Art Society of Vancouver's 2017 Artist Prize

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By Erin Kirsh

Posted on | Updated

Jeneen received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2012.

Congratulations to alumna Jeneen Frei Njootli (2012) for winning the Contemporary Art Society of Vancouver's Artist Prize for 2017!

The Contemporary Art Society of Vancouver's Artist Prize is one of the few prizes of its kind in Vancouver, a prize devoted to helping artists in the first five years of their careers gain greater awareness and appreciation, and to help support and encourage them. The CASV Artist Prize has been awarded to some of Vancouver's most exciting young artists, and we are pleased to announce that alumna Jeneen Frei Njootli is now among them.

Jeneen Frei Njootli was awarded $10,000 at the October 22nd celebration of the CASV’s Artist Prize/40th Anniversary, held at the new Emily Carr University of Art and Design campus. She was selected by the membership of the Contemporary Art Society out of three finalists including fellow Emily Carr alumni Alexine McLeod and Tiziana La Melia.

Congratulations to Jeneen, Alexine, and Tiziana for their exceptional accomplishment!

Jeneen Frei Njootli is a Vuntut Gwitchin artist and co-creator of the ReMatriate Collective. Based between the Yukon and unceded coast Salish territories in Vancouver, Frei Njootli works primarily in sound-based performances. Frequently giving free workshops, her community-engaged practice focuses on visual Indigenous sovereignty and relationships with land. She speaks about Bushed Theories in the 2016 Spring issue of American Indian Culture and Research Journal.

Frei Njootli has presented internationally on her work and has exhibited recently at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Southern Manitoba and Macaulay & Co Fine Arts in Vancouver. She is currently being mentored by Lorraine Netro to advocate for the permanent protection of the Porcupine Caribou Herd’s calving grounds, located in the north-western corner of Alaska. A herd that the border spanning Gwich’in Nation have had a relationship with for over 20,000 years.