Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2022 - Director's Introduction

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2022 is on show to the public from 29 September to 16 October 2022. Join this introduction to the 2022 exhibition in The Buoy Store at Trinity Buoy Wharf with founding Director, Professor Anita Taylor, artist and Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone Collegeof Art & Design at the Univiersty of Dundee.

The pre-eminent annual open exhibition for drawing in the UK, the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, was founded in 1994 by Anita Taylor and Paul Thomas as the Rexel Derwent Open Drawing Exhibition. It was known from 1996 until 2000 as the Cheltenham Open Drawing Exhibition and was supported by a private benefactor, Westland Nurseries, The Summerfield Trust, CHK Charities and Rootstein Hopkins Foundation. The exhibition was subsequently known as Jerwood Drawing Prize with 17 years of significant support from Jerwood Charitable Foundation from 2001 until 2017. The Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust became the principal benefactor in 2018.

Selected from original artworks, the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize and exhibition has an established reputation for its commitment to championing excellence and promoting and celebrating the breadth of contemporary drawing practice. The open exhibition provides a platform for drawing practitioners to showcase their work alongside other leading artists and makers in the field. The exhibition is launched each year, and the awards announced in London before touring in the UK. While offering emerging, mid-career and established artists a platform to exhibit their work, the project has developed new insights into the role and value of drawing in creative practice today.

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2022 exhibition will include 113 drawings by 94 artists - selected by Lucy Byatt, Director of Hospitalfield; Danie Mellor, Artist; Isabel Seligman, Monument Trust Curator of Modern and Contemporary Drawing in the Department of Prints and Drawings at The British Museum - and 21 drawings by 19 drawing practitioners selected for the Working Drawing Category by 
Niall Hobhouse, Collector, Writer & Trustee, Drawing Matter; Tania Kovats, Professor of Drawing & Making, University of Dundee; Daniel McAuliffe, Education Director (Hubs), The Prince’s Foundation.

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2022 received over 3,200 entries from 1,617 drawing practitioners from 45 different countries for the exhibition and awards that total £17,000. This large and diverse exhibition, of 134 drawings overall, reflects a broad range of current drawing practice. It includes works on paper and other supports, moving image and performance, made by artists, architects, designers and makers at all stages of their careers living and working across the UK as well as in Australia, Chile, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Spain, and the USA.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Trinity Buoy Wharf, 64 Orchard Place, London, United Kingdom