Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2021

More than 3,000 entries were submitted to the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2021. The exhibition, which opens on Monday 21 March, comprises 114 works by 99 drawing practitioners shortlisted for the annual awards.

The exhibition reflects a broad scope of current drawing practice by artists, architects, designers, and makers at all stages of their careers from more than 40 countries. 

Almost all of the drawings in the exhibition were made during the pandemic. Some deal with this directly while others are more tangentially influenced by the experiences of the pandemic and other ongoing challenges.

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.

“The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize open exhibition has provided a forum to test, evaluate and disseminate current drawing practice since 1994,” said Professor Taylor. 

“The exhibition is open to all who wish to submit their drawings, and through the selected exhibition and publication, knowledge and understanding is gained about the breadth and scope of drawing practice today. 

“Drawing has long provided an essential means to bring ideas and issues into focus, and to document the personal, political, and social. Global lockdowns have continued throughout the period that drawings eligible for the exhibition have been made and, naturally, this experience features in many of the drawings from a range of countries.”

Professor Taylor, an artist, educator and curator, founded the annual exhibition, then known as the Rexel Derwent Open Drawing Exhibition and, subsequently, as Jerwood Drawing Prize, in 1994. Other leading figures from Dundee’s cultural scene have also played an integral role in this year’s Prize, with Leonie Bell, Director of V&A Dundee, joining the selection panel for the Working Drawing Award.

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize exhibition was presented at Trinity Buoy Wharf in London in September 2021, where the prizes with a total value of £27,000 were awarded. All the winning works will be showcased in the Cooper Gallery, including Ye Olde Keyhole Surgery by First Prize winner Gary Lawrence, and Dark Balloons by Second Prize winner David Haines. They were awarded £8,000 and £5,000, respectively. 

The Student Award (£2,000) went to Gabriela Adach for her hand drawn animation, El Duende and the Working Drawing Award (£2,000) was awarded to Zahra Akbari Baseri. These were all supported by the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust in this fourth year of their sponsorship. 

The biennial Evelyn Williams Drawing Award (£10,000,) was awarded to Roland Hicks for his drawing Double Chip/Shuffle Zip and associates project proposal supported by the Evelyn Williams Trust in association with Hastings Contemporary and Drawing Projects UK. 

The exhibition runs from 21 March until 16 April and is open Monday to Saturday, 11am-4pm.

Visitors are asked to book one-hour time slots in advance via Eventbrite.