Emily Carr University of Art + Design is pleased to share news that alumna Jeneen Frei Njootli has been awarded one of three William and Meredith Saunderson Prizes for Emerging Canadian Artists through The Hnatyshyn Foundation. The $5,000 prizes are intended to nurture emerging talent in the visual arts in Canada.

Jeneen Frei Njootli is a Vuntut Gwitchin artist and a founding member of the ReMatriate collective. In 2012, she graduated from Emily Carr University of Art + Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and went on to a Visual Art Studio Work Study position at The Banff Centre, followed by two thematic residencies there. She recently completed her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of British Columbia as an uninvited guest on unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututhterritories. Performance artist, curator, fashion designer, workshop facilitator and crime-prevention youth-coordinator are some of the positions Frei Njootli has held while exhibiting across Canada. She has an upcoming solo exhibition at Macaulay & Co. Fine Arts in Vancouver, January 2017. Frei Njootli is from Old Crow, Yukon, and lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Watch a 2015 interview with Jeneen.

The winners of this year’s awards were chosen by Candice Hopkins, 2015 recipient of the Hnatyshyn Award for Curatorial Excellence. Hopkins is a citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation, Yukon, and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is curatorial advisor for dOCUMENTA(14) opening in Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany in 2017.