The Springboard Award for Visual Arts, gifted by the Edgar Family

Chevron Hassett, born in Lower Hutt, Aotearoa, is an early career artist of Māori (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Rongomaiwahine) heritage. He graduated with a Bachelor of Design with Honours from Massey University in 2016 and was the recipient of the Ngā Manu Pīrere award from Creative New Zealand in 2017.

Hassett is a visual artist predominantly working in lens-based media, sculpture, and public installation. At the heart of his practice is the essential spirit of whanaungatanga, the Māori concept of connecting, building, and maintaining relationships within communities. Hassett holistically collaborates with his local communities and peoples, his recent works engage with narratives of socio-cultural identities, urban indigeneity and colonialism within Pacific and indigenous histories.

Chevron Hassett will be mentored by 2021 Arts Foundation Laureate Brett Graham

Brett Graham is widely regarded as one of New Zealand’s most accomplished contemporary artists. He has been an artist full time since 2005, exhibiting twice at the Sydney Biennale in 2006 and 2010 and at the 52^nd Venice Biennale in 2007. Graham’s father, sculptor Fred Graham, and contemporaries such as Selwyn Muru, Paratene Matchitt and Ralph Hotere were early influences on his artistic development.

Statement from selection panel:

“Chevron is building an incredibly strong practice that centres whanaungatanga, and gives potent voice to contemporary lived experience of Māori. Based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, raised in Naenae, and working across lens-based media and increasingly in sculpture and installation, Hassett’s work is confident, crafted and resists tropes of over-romanticisation and exoticisation to convey the strength, beauty and vulnerabilities of the people and places he creates images of.”