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Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014 - The Open College of the Arts

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Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014

The Jerwood Drawing Prize grabbed headlines earlier this year when it was announced that Alison Carlier’s submission – a brief recording of her describing an ‘unknown object’ – was awarded first prize. Could a description, specifically an audio description, be a drawing? The overall feel of this show is of a calm, almost silent elegance, with little to disturb the viewer. That’s not to say that some of the works don’t play our expectations, but it’s all done without rashness or petulance.
Several of the works are evidence of extreme patience and techincal skill, seducing the eye with detail and panache but not without demanding something of us. Jessie Brennan’s large drawing of an ornate ceiling draws us in but, through an inversion disorients. Was it drawn the the right way up and then turned or was the subject seen in one of those mirrors arranged so we can inspect a ceiling without getting a crick in our necks?

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Jonathan Huxley’s small, strange, and smudgy Breakdown beckons us through a kind of visual mumbling. Something is going on in the murk, but there’s little detail. He tempts us to concoct a narrative, and perhaps getting closer will make it clearer … but to no avail. Other works are more gestural and immediate. Katie Sollohub’s Quantum Life uses vigorous and brutal marks (with charcoal and an eraser) to explore shapes and objects. It’s figurative and observed, but resolutely a thing in its own right.

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Aside from conventionally figurative works, several pieces explore the field (paper, mostly) as an arena for mark-making that is harder to pin down. These works are objects first and representation second (or not at all). Hilary Ellis’ Enigma II threads cotton in and out of a grid to create an evasive pseudo-calligraphic surface and Michael Griffiths’ equally abstract Spectrum plays with shape and form in a looser, seemingly more intuitive way.
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Alex Chalmers has filled a sheet with an uneven grid like structure in blue coloured pencil, turning the paper into a surface that appears to ripple an oscillate. His notes (and the catalogue is a lovely thing that gives an insight to the selection process and the artists’ myriad approaches to their work) explain that the piece – Untitled (for Ian Welsh) – is a eulogy for an artist friend who made paintings of water. Chalmers has found a way of echoing that without mimicing it.

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Group shows, especially open submission ones, can be hard to read. Agendas are contradictory and as selector / curator Gavin Delaughty writes in the catalogue introduction that the shortlist was made up of ‘artists who knew how to embrace, or indeed reject the manifold approaches to drawing that exist today’. Drawing might be particularly hard to pin down as it lies at the root of much creative practice and serves as a place for working out ideas. It is often economically viable when all other options are closed and the works in this show demonstrate that material simplicity need not be a hindrance to the curious artist. It is, however, tempting to see patterns and themes and if I were to title the show it would be something to do with ‘glimpses’. A lot of the work seems to catch something fleeting or perhaps a detail or footnote. Elaine Griffin’s Mementos – tender drawings of children’s clothing, including simple explanatory texts that add insight or narrative to the images – seem to be an explicit version of what is, elsewhere, implicit.

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To return to the question I posed in the first paragraph: Could a description, specifically an audio description, be a drawing? It’s a good question and there isn’t really a simple answer. My inclination is to say yes and then test it against the world and the other submissions. The piece itself is figurative and not especially literary. The delivery is unadorned and just as measured and elegant as many of the other submissions. Would I have awarded it the prize? I’m not sure. I like the boldness and brevity of the submission. It is as seductive and curious in its way as any of the works here but perhaps it strays a little too far from the visual for me. Were I curating the how, would I have included it? Absolutely. Or at least, I’d like to think so.
 
Exhibition details: There is no admission fee at any of the venues.
16th September – 26th October: Jerwood Space, London
22nd November – 4th January: Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum
16th January – 1st March: The Tetley, Leeds
13th March – 23rd April: The Gallery (The Arts University), Bournemouth
9th May – 12th June: The Burton Art Gallery and Museum, Bideford
Check local venues for opening times
 
Image Credits:
Jessie Brennan, Apostelstraat 20, graphite on paper. Courtesy the artist and Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014. Photography Benjamin Cosmo Westoby
Jonathon Huxley, Breakdown, charcoal on paper. Courtesy the artist and Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014. Photography Benjamin Cosmo Westoby

Katie Sollohub, Quantum life, charcoal on paper. Courtesy the artist and Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014. Photography Benjamin Cosmo Westoby
Katie Sollohub, On the edge, charcoal on paper. Courtesy the artist and Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014. Photography Benjamin Cosmo Westoby
Hilary Ellis, Enigma II, thread on paper. Courtesy the artist and Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014. Photography Benjamin Cosmo Westoby
Michael Griffiths, Spectrum, charcoal and oil pastel. Courtesy the artist and Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014. Photography Benjamin Cosmo Westoby
Elaine Griffin, Mementos (detail), graphite. Courtesy the artist and Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014. Photography Benjamin Cosmo Westoby
Alex Chalmers, Untitled (for Ian Welsh), coloured pencil on paper. Courtesy the artist and Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014. Photography Benjamin Cosmo Westoby

Posted by author: Bryan

8 thoughts on “Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014

  • I would have thought that an audio description of an object was just that and no more. Why try to pass it off as a drawing? I know things are bad in art schools but surely she could at least have attempted to draw it.

  • You use the word ‘elegant’ in your overall description of these works. I would agree that the works shown in the blog are indeed elegant. I would add ‘quirky’ and even ‘obsessive’. Were there any inelegant works in the exhibition- drawings that were just plain gutsy and awkward, even a bit ugly? I would be curious to know how broad the curation was. Often curators want a particular look. Did you get that impression? As for the audio piece- why not? It makes a nice change, but I would have to hear it before commenting further.

  • The show is hung elegantly. White walls, frames or unobtrusive fastenings. No mess. That makes even the scruffier or more provisional drawings a cleanliness, I suppose. Katie Sollohub’s work (above) is quite small and so the smudginess is corralled effectively. there’s little sense of spillage or mess anywhere. That makes sense as it’s a group show and the hang simply puts the work up and allows all the pieces to breathe, throwing the viewer’s attention back on the work itself.

  • I would love to see these works. But distance prevents. The rich variety is encouraging. I am particularly drawn to the seemingly rapidly drawn/ partly erased works by Katie Sollohub. There is a rawness and intensity here balanced by the calm of more open spaces and brevity of detail.There is something refereshing in drawings that seem to be drawings for drawing sake rather than as a process to something else.
    Not that there is anything lesser about “process drawings”. I found this when viewing David Trubridge drawings recently. Even though they are not the end “product’, the drawings become so intriguing in that we can see the idea first captured in its raw state.

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