The Redlands Art Prize may not be as well-known or as controversial as the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman trifecta, but since its humble beginnings in the gymnasium of the Redlands school on Sydney's lower north shore in 1996, it has become known as a hothouse for nurturing new talent. An acquisitive prize, each year the school adds to its impressive collection of emerging artists, who often go on to become household names. Names such as Ben Quilty, Mikala Dwyer, Imants Tillers or Callum Morton.

What's unique about the Redlands prize is that it's curated by a previous year's winner, who assembles a pool of established artist peers and then each of them in turn elect an emerging artist to show alongside their work. It's curation as Russian doll, each one nurturing another. "Or an exquisite corpse," says this year's curator and 2013 winner, Callum Morton, referring to the Surrealist technique by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled and slowly revealed.

"I choose 20 artists and they invite 20 more, and with each addition you don't know exactly how that will affect the final picture. So it is effectively uncurated – almost anti-curating."

Morton, who exhibits with blue-chip Anna Schwartz Gallery in Melbourne and Roslyn Oxley9 in Sydney, has decided to favour artists who work in collectives or as duos.

"It was apparent to me that artists' groups, or artists who work collaboratively as a primary part of their practice, were rarely represented in the past. I wanted to include these practices because they are increasingly a very important part of the cultural landscape of this country and also because they tend to be excluded from the mainstream, which consistently prefers the individual narrative to the collective one."

And so the Paris-based artists Geoff Lowe and Jacqueline Riva of Melbourne, who collaborate under the banner of A Constructed World, have nominated the Adelaide-based Indigenous artist Amanda Lee Radoomi. ("We actually got to know on her on Facebook," Lowe laughs). Husband and wife team David Haines and Joyce Hinterding, who live in the Blue Mountains, have selected Niall Robb, who graduated from Sydney College of the Arts in 2012. The four female artists who work under the name Barbara Cleveland in honour of the 1970s Sydney performance artist of the same name have elected the three female artists who collaborate under the guise of Get To Work.

"I have always liked the idea of artists curating their peers," says Morton, "because it's an interesting notion for a prize to insist on the importance of each generation supporting the next, rather than the avant-garde, Oedipal and linear notion that each new generation replaces the past one."

Inspired by architecture

Morton's own installation and sculptural work is inspired by architecture and the built environment, and he represented Australia at the 2007 Venice Biennale. His fake Eastlink Hotel, installed alongside the M11 freeway linking inner Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula, caused something of an uproar when it was unveiled in 2008. The artist refers to it as part of a "parallel built universe". Drivers call it a traffic hazard.

Working collaboratively is a mantra of Millennial lifestyles, with co-operative gardens, collective micro breweries and collaborative workspaces popping up all over the place. But artists have been working together for decades.

Geoff Lowe and Jacqueline Riva formed A Constructed World in Melbourne in 1993, before moving to Turin and finally setting up home base in Paris in 2008.

"There is something about working in a group that offers a way of seeing which you just can't get on your own," says Lowe. "Sometimes we'll work separately, sometimes together," adds Riva. "We sometimes do bigger pieces in which we collaborate with 20 or so people, in an hour-and-a-half performance."

A Constructed World will be doing a performance piece with Radoomi at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery on March 29.

In a sign of the growing public stature of a prize initiated in the private sector, the Redlands exhibition has been installed since 2012 at an institution that holds considerable sway on the culture – the National School of Art, in Darlinghurst, Sydney, the oldest art school in the country. Despite being sponsored by camera maker Konica Minolta since 2012, there is no restriction on media used in the artworks. The winning established artist is awarded $25,000, the winning emerging artist, $10,000.

'Supporting artist pathways'

All winning works are acquired by Redlands and installed around the school buildings. So a Ben Quilty painting hangs in the Redlands Hall on the senior campus and a work by Lindy Lee graces the junior campus meeting room. Mikala Dwyer's 2015 winning entry, a free-standing, life-size translucent blob, is in the process of being installed in the foyer of the new learning hub on the senior campus.

"The education angle is deeply entrenched in the model, supporting artist pathways from secondary school through to emerging and on to mid-career and established artists," says Morton, himself a professor of fine arts at Melbourne's Monash University.

Accordingly to Sydney gallerist Sarah Cottier, "The Redlands prize is unique because it is curated by artists. Good artists. Artists who pay attention and know what's what. The curatorial premise, with its family tree-like structure is extremely generous and guaranteed to create an interesting exhibition."

The 21st annual Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize will be installed at Sydney's National Art School Gallery from March 28 until May 20.