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Dark Park. 2023. ‘Inktense’ pencil on paper. 42cm x 59.4cm
The Derwent Art Prize 2024 Exhibition is now open. Out of 6000 entries, my spooky work was chosen to hang alongside 67 other pieces at the Gallery @ OXO in London until 14th April. Don’t forget to vote for your favourite in the People’s Choice award here. Many of the pieces are also for sale.
Installation view of the exhibition ‘Solastalgia’. Works shown are by Anita Wadsworth, Matt Bannister, Asha Fontenelle, Flora Hunt, Dave Miller.
“Solastalgia occurs when someone feels a sense of anxiety, grief, or loss due to the degradation or alteration of their home environment. It is the inability to find solace in one’s surroundings.”
The end of 2023 marked Turf Projects’ 10 year anniversary. It has been a time to look back at the journey the organisation has been on, celebrating all that we’ve achieved; and also to look forward to the space we are yet to carve out, the Croydon of the future we would like to create.
Following on from themes from our last programme ’Desire Paths’, and linking in to Turf’s year of ‘demystification’, Turf staff, studio holders, and collective members have contributed works to a group show exploring our relation to home, to sense of belonging, to Croydon and space – or lack thereof.
‘Solastalgia’ incorporates the work of 21 artists and groups to create a communal Croydon folklore; some works that celebrate our shared space, and some that show longing for those that have been lost.
Installation view of the exhibition ‘Solastalgia’. Dark Park by Matt Bannister.
Installation view of the exhibition ‘Solastalgia’. Works shown are Dark Park by Matt Bannister and pieces by Asha Fontenelle, and Dave Miller.
My large scale drawing (the largest I’ve done for a good few years) Dark Park is on display for the first part of the exhibition until 22nd March. From 23rd March to 27th April other pieces by me TBC will be on show.
Installation view of the exhibition ‘Solastalgia’. Photograph: ©Zoe Maxwell.
‘Solastalgia’ at Turf Projects. Photograph: ©Zoe Maxwell.
Swerve. 2022. Framed.
© TheGallery AUB
The AUB hang was curated by Violet M McLean and Millie Lake. The annual Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize celebrates talent and excellence in current drawing practice. The exhibition provides an important platform for artists, designers and makers and champions the role, breadth, and value of drawing today.
Installation view. TheGallery AUB. Photograph by Eliza Nade. © TheGallery AUB
Installation view. TheGallery AUB. Photograph by Eliza Nade. © TheGallery AUB
Open until 16 April 2024.
Tuesday to Thursday: 9.00am – 5.00pm. Saturday: 9.00am – 1.00pm.
TheGallery AUB, Arts University Bournemouth (AUB), Poole, Dorset BH12 5HH
For more information visit aub.ac.uk/latest/trinity-buoy-wharf-drawing-prize-2023-touring-exhibition
Swerve. 2022. Inktense pencil, acrylic, ink on paper. 29.7 cm x 42 cm.
The exhibition opens on 29th September at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London and runs until 15th October 2023 before going on tour to other venues in the UK (Dundee, Bournemouth, Plymouth and Wigan). Thank you to Laura Hoptman, Dennis Scholl AM, Barbara Walker MBE RA and Drawing Projects UK for including my work. I can’t wait to see what the other artists chosen have produced.
The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2023 received 3,000 submissions from 1,450 candidates located across the world. A total of 124 works by 111 drawing practitioners have been chosen by the two distinguished Selection Panels for the exhibition and are shortlisted for the awards. The Prize is the foremost annual open exhibition for drawing in the UK. Founded in 1994 by Anita Taylor and Paul Thomas as the Rexel Derwent Open Drawing Exhibition, it was known as the Jerwood Drawing Prize from 2001 to 2017 and delivered in partnership with the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.
I found all the discarded objects as I walked to my studio in Croydon, south London, and then arranged them into a tiny balanced tabletop sculpture. Some side lighting, and the camera on my phone, helped me construct a strong source of inspiration to work from for the drawing itself. Inktense pencil, acrylic, ink on paper. 29.7 cm x 42 cm.
The lighthouse and The Buoy Store, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London.
Installation view of the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2023 at the Buoy Store, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London.
If you've got an hour spare you can watch a serious walk-through of the show here.
OR if you follow this link it will go straight to my bit.
Having cut my right index finger quite deeply on a tin of treacle a little while ago, I decided to challenge my left hand to do something useful during the Lockdown. I drew a creature alphabet in pen on some painted bits of card, whilst my normally well-behaved right hand could only throb and watch. Here are the results.
I’ve unified the colours a little in Photoshop, but you can see what the sketches were like originally too. I think I got pretty ambidextrous by the time I drew the animals for the letters X, Y and Z! I did take about three times longer, mind, but it was a good exercise.
Some were more successful than others; I’m pleased with the duck, the elephant and the quail. The trickier ones are shown below (in case you can’t work them out). Look out for the creature I did for the letter X. Worth remembering if you like playing Scrabble.
I- Ibis
M- Marlin
U- Urchin
X- Xeme
