Shortlisted works for one of the world’s most prestigious drawing prizes are to go on Dundee display later this week in a coup for the city.
Dundee University’s Cooper Gallery will exhibit 71 pieces by 56 artists who were part of a 4,000 strong entry from 42 countries for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2020.
The display covers students to established artists and explores stories of love in the age of the coronavirus, 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 exhibition will open on Friday.
Visitors are asked to book one-hour time slots in advance.
“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.”
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 exhibition will be presented at Trinity Buoy Wharf in London in January next year, when the prizes with a total value of £17,000 will be awarded.
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.
