The Jerwood Drawing Prize is the largest and longest running annual open exhibition for drawing in the UK. Selected from original drawings, the Prize has established a reputation for its commitment to championing excellence, and to promoting and celebrating the breadth of current drawing practice, this year including hand drawn, digital, moving image, textile and sculptural works. The exhibition provides a platform to showcase the work of drawing practitioners, from student to established, and as a project helps to define a wider understanding of the role and value of drawing in creative practice.
This year 69 works by 65 artists have been selected from 2811 submissions from across the UK, by Dr David Dibosa, writer, researcher and Reader in Museology at the University of the Arts London, Helen Legg, Director of Spike Island and Michael Simpson, artist.
Exhibiting artists: David Ainley, Elisa Alaluusua, Pam Aldridge, Becky Allen, Kate Aspinall, Adam Bainbridge, Andy Bannister, Helen Barff, Dail Behennah, Kelly Best, Kate Black, Alice Blackstock, Abigail Booth, Becky Brewis, Lucinda Burgess, Eric Butcher, Stephen Carter, Ian Chamberlain, Lewis Chamberlain, Dean Claydon, Susannah Douglas, Dickon Drury, Richard Ducker, Jim Dunkley, James Fowkes, Nigel Frost, Christopher Fry, Lesley Hicks, Jim Hobbs, Marianne Holm Hansen, Caroline Holt-Wilson, Susie Howarth, Ronnie Hughes, Jeremy Hutchison, Julia Hutton, Jonathan Huxley, Alexander Johnson, Ben Johnson, Will Kippax, Jason Lane, Gary Lawrence, Carali McCall, Grace McMurray, Tahira Mandarino, Ana Mendes, Jasone Miranda-Bilbao, Jade Montserrat, Dejan Mrdja, David Murphy, Susan Petticrew, Helen Rawlinson, Giulia Ricci, Fiona G Roberts, Caragh Savage, Carly Seller, Tom Sewell, Laurie Steen, Rebecca Swindell, David Symonds, Sally Taylor, Ben Wade, Barbara Walker, Eleanor Wood, Sally Wood, and Andrea V Wright.
Of the selection process, Michael Simpson said: “I found the whole experience of taking part in the judging of the Jerwood Drawing Prize so engrossing that when we finally came to the end of day two, I felt disappointed it was over. Looking at art is one of the great pleasures of life and to examine almost three thousand drawings in such a short intense period of time became, in the best sense, a demandingly rigorous exercise in critical appraisal. The diversity was astonishing, wide ranging and rich; when you see so much variation in human endeavour, you know anything is possible on a predominately flat simple surface. Ruskin’s book, The Elements of Drawing with its rigidly archaic instructions to students kept filtering into my mind.” Michael Simpson, Artist and 2017 Selector
Supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation, Jerwood Drawing Prize is a unique initiative led by founding Director, Professor Anita Taylor (Executive Dean of Bath School of Art & Design at Bath Spa University). In offering emerging, mid-career and established artists a national platform to exhibit their work, the exhibition has established a reputation for supporting excellence and the development of new insights into the role and value of drawing in artistic practice today.
The First Prize of £8,000, Second Prize of £5,000 and two Student Awards of £2,000 each, will be announced and awarded at the preview on 12 September 2017. A new prize – The Evelyn Williams Drawing Award, worth £10,000 – will also be awarded to an artist selected for the 2017 exhibition. The Award will support an individual artist with a significant track record to develop and realise a body of drawings for a new solo exhibition.
The Jerwood Drawing Prize exhibition will be on display at Jerwood Space, London from 13 September – 22 October 2017, followed by a national tour to East Gallery, Norwich University of the Arts (14 November 2017 – 6 January 2018), The Edge, University of Bath (10 February – 31 March 2018) and Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury (12 April – 6 May 2018).
The Jerwood Drawing Prize project is led by founding Director, Professor Anita Taylor, Executive Dean of Bath School of Art & Design at Bath Spa University and supported by Jerwood Charitable. The project was founded in 1994 as the Rexel Derwent Open Drawing Exhibition and was known from 1996 until 2000 as the Cheltenham Open Drawing Exhibition until the Jerwood Charitable Foundation became the principal benefactor in 2001.
Following 17 significant and successful years of support, Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Bath Spa University have announced that 2017 will be Jerwood Charitable Foundation’s final year as the key partner and funder for the Jerwood Drawing Prize. The exhibition project will continue to be led and developed by Professor Anita Taylor at Bath Spa University. The visual arts in the UK has benefited enormously from the prestige of the Jerwood Drawing Prize, which has championed the careers of many emerging and established artists and this legacy will continue as the project moves forward into a new phase with new supporters.
Since its inauguration in 1994, the Jerwood Drawing Prize exhibition has showcased work by emerging, mid-career and established artists including Charles Avery, Sian Bowen, Gordon Cheung, Eileen Cooper RA, Graham Crowley, Adam Dant, Ian Davenport, Paul Emsley, Mark Francis, Neville Gabie, Tricia Gillman, Jane Harris, Melanie Jackson, Annie Kevans, Ansel Krut, Tom Phillips RA, Rebecca Salter RA, Soheila Sokhanvari, Michael Simpson, Emma Talbot, Virginia Verran and Rose Wylie RA.
