Caroline Burraway wins the £8,000 First Prize for her charcoal drawing Eden; the Second Prize of £5,000 goes to Gary Lawrence for his mixed media work Moonlit Delphi c/o Samuel Palmer; and the Student Award of £2,000 is awarded to Laura Hudson for her charcoal work Nail House Drawings. The new Trinity Buoy Wharf Prize for a Working Drawing worth £1000 is awarded to Andy Bannister for his graphite drawing ROC Post '64.
The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, formerly Jerwood Drawing Prize, has established a reputation for its commitment to championing excellence, and for promoting and celebrating the breadth of contemporary drawing practice within the UK.
The prestigious First Prize of £8,000 has been awarded to Caroline Burraway for her powerful depiction of Eden – a young refugee living in the Calais migrant camp commonly known as the The Jungle. The artist recalls the ‘poor living conditions’ in The Jungle where ‘there were no facilities at all, not even toilets or running water’. She said ‘Eden was sharing a small tent with lots of other girls – she was incredibly enigmatic.’ For Burraway, drawing felt like the appropriate medium to convey the ‘humaness’ of refugees like Eden: ‘unlike film which is very immediate and has a quick uptake, a drawing offers the viewer time and space – I hope they begin to see their own humanity and history in the face of the subject’.
Gary Lawrence is the recipient of the £5000 Second Prize for his mixed media drawing Moonlit Delphi c/o Samuel Palmer. Executed with technical precision using readily available craft materials, the work is a detailed portrayal of the ancient sanctuary Delphi, which is situated in Phocis, Greece, and is widely considered to be the ‘navel’ or centre of the world. Lawrence has won the Drawing Prize twice before, in 2017 for Yellow Kalymnos and Fridge Magnets, and in 2011 for Homage to Anonymous.
The Student Award of £2000 is awarded to Laura Hudson for Nail House Drawings, a series of 9 charocal drawings on wash on paper which mediate between the photographic source and a series of paintings. Speaking of the work, the artist said ‘I have tried to create a form so paired down that it lies on the cusp of being one thing and then another - a universal something that stands in for something else and lingers in the mind metaphorically - a conjuring line - a character with an absence of fixed boundaries.’
Andy Bannister has been awarded the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize for a Working Drawing worth £1000. His graphite drawing ROC Post '64’ reflects the artist’s interest in the relationship between urban space, architecture and lived experience. Through his works he focuses on elements of the built environment that have either been forgotten, overlooked or destroyed by the passage of time, neglect or conflict; in doing so, he considers their place within individual and collective memory.
The prizewinning pieces are amongst 69 works by 67 artists which have been selected for the 2018 exhibition by Nigel Hall RA, artist; Megan Piper, contemporary art dealer; and Chris Stephens, Director of the Holburne Museum in Bath.
The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize exhibition will be on display at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London from 29 September – 17 October 2018 (closed 6 & 12 October). This will be followed by a national tour to TheGallery at Arts Univeristy Bournemouth (22 November 2018–10 January 2019); the Royal Drawing School in Shoreditch (2–22 February 2019); Drawing Projects UK, Wiltshire (2 March–26 April 2019); and Chapel Gallery in Lancashire (4 May–6 July 2019).
Supported by Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust, the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize is the largest and longest running annual open exhibition for drawing in the UK. Selected from original drawings, the exhibition has established a reputation for its commitment to championing excellence, and to promoting and celebrating current drawing practice. The initiative is led by founding Director, Professor Anita Taylor (Executive Dean of Bath School of Art & Design at Bath Spa University) and offers emerging, mid-career and established artists a national platform to exhibit their drawings, supporting and promoting their talent and excellence, and the role and value of drawing.
Image: First Prize Winner, Caroline Burraway, Eden - The Jungle Calais
