Press release

Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2020

Published on 5 November 2020

An exhibition featuring works shortlisted for one of the world’s most prestigious drawing prizes will open at the University of Dundee’s Cooper Gallery next week.

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An exhibition featuring works shortlisted for one of the world’s most prestigious drawing prizes will open at the University of Dundee’s Cooper Gallery next week.

More than 4,000 artists from 42 countries entered the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2020. The selected exhibition comprises 71 works by 56 drawing practitioners shortlisted for the annual awards, and opens on Friday 13 November.

The exhibition reflects a broad scope of contemporary drawing practice produced by artists, designers and makers at all stages of their careers, from students to established artists. The 2020 exhibition explores stories of love in the age of the Coronavirus, portrayals of touch and affection between same-sex couples, the intimacy and hardships of working as a carer, and experiences of living through the process of grief.

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize has an established reputation as the UK’s most important annual exhibition of drawing. Led by Professor Anita Taylor, Dean of the University’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, and supported by the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust, the open exhibition is known for its influential role in celebrating contemporary drawing practice and championing the value of drawing.

“This year has been incredibly difficult for artists, designers, makers and cultural institutions, so I am delighted that we have been able to realise the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2020 exhibition and bring it to the Cooper Gallery,” said Professor Taylor.

“I hope this will be seen as an important addition to Dundee’s cultural offering. Drawing is a vital means of communication and expression and is relevant to all that we do at DJCAD.

“We received an incredible volume of entries from across the world this year and our independent panels have endeavoured to select an exhibition that exemplifies current drawing practices and ideas.

“Drawing has long provided a means to bring issues and ideas into focus and the exhibition presents an array of lived, imagined and proposed human experiences, using a wide range of means and methods - from ink, pencil, charcoal or pastel on paper, card to collage, digital and moving image, and three-dimensional works.”

Professor Taylor, an artist, educator and curator, founded the annual exhibition, then known as the Rexel Derwent Open Drawing Exhibition, in 1994. Other leading figures from Dundee’s cultural scene have also played an integral role in this year’s Prize, with Sophia Hao, Curator of the Cooper Gallery, and Sophie McKinlay, Director of Programme at V&A Dundee, joining the selection panels.

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize exhibition will be presented at Trinity Buoy Wharf in London in January 2021, when the prizes with a total value of £17,000 will be awarded.

Several individual awards will be presented - the First Prize (£8,000), Second Prize (£5,000), Student Award (£2,000), and the Working Drawing Award (£2,000), all supported by the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust in this third year of their sponsorship. The latter award focuses on the role of working drawings in art, architecture, design, engineering, manufacture, production, and science.

To help keep visitors and staff safe, new safety measures in line with Scottish Government guidelines around Covid-19 have been implemented, and visitors are asked to book one-hour time slots in advance via Eventbrite. 

Enquiries

Grant Hill

Senior Public Affairs Officer

+44 (0)1382 384768

G.Hill@dundee.ac.uk
Story category Events and exhibitions