SYDNEY.-The annual ARTEXPRESS exhibition, one of the Gallery’s most popular, turns 25 this year. Beginning its life as a small display for principal and teacher conferences, the exhibition has grown to attract hundreds of thousands of people annually.

Drawn from works submitted for the NSW Higher School Certificate Visual Art examination, ARTEXPRESS provides insights into students’ creativity and the issues and ideas that are of importance to them. The exhibition presents the independent voice of young people to a large and diverse audience and exemplifies not just their exceptional talent but also the expertise of the visual arts teachers that guide them through their studies.

This year’s ARTEXPRESS includes 62 outstanding art works selected from over 9000 students who sat the HSC Visual Arts in 2007. These works include painting, drawing, photography, textiles, ceramics, graphic design, film and video, digital animation and sculpture. Students are required to submit a ‘body of work’ that explores themes related to personal and social experiences, world events and politics, reflection on the past and visions of the future, debates and dialogues about contemporary art issues as well as of art histories.

Over the 25 years of ARTEXPRESS many students have gone on to a diverse range of careers in the arts, including curators, educators, photographers, animators, graphic designers and contemporary artists. Ben Quilty and Jasper Knight, both finalists in the Archibald Prize in recent years are two who have become successful artists.

Tristan Sharp, senior co-ordinator, education programs, Art Gallery of New South Wales says: “This year’s selection marks the 25th exhibition at the Gallery and while this anniversary reinforces a sense of history, the artworks on display present an informed, critical and at times edgy sense of the here and now, as well as the close awareness students have of contemporary art practice.”

Information about all the exhibiting artists together with a virtual exhibition tour and a curator’s talk podcast will be available.

ARTEXPRESS is a joint initiative of the NSW Department of Education and Training and the Board of Studies NSW in association with the Art Gallery of New South Wales.