Jerwood Drawing Exhibition

I had a really interesting day out on Thursday.  The Jerwood Drawing exhibition has just opened in Southwark.  It is an annual competition designed to display drawing in its widest sense.  The only thing that I think is definitely excluded is painting (because it is wet media?).  The criteria for exhibition was:

- to experience the artist's voice and view
- to have something to interest and intrigue the viewer.

There were 3,080 entries, of which 76 made it to the show.  The selection process was observed by art students, many of whom had submitted entries, so they could hear the comments made by selectors.  Work selected was diverse, although the selectors said there was a lot of work submitted that was "obsessive", which I interpreted as beautifully detailed but overpowering and somewhat anal.  I felt too much work selected was monochrome pencil.  all the work that appealed to me was monochrome (unusually) but none of it was pencil.

I liked:

Bolas.  Beatriz Olaburrieta.
Video of artist holding a marker pen in each hand, drawing around rolling balls as they moved.  this resulted in a complicated dense scribble.  Original way of drawing and showing the process

Important.  Act Now.  Lindsay Connors.
Scalpel drawing on Inland Revenue envelope seen through window on envelope.  Innovative use of materials and media

They looked like silver birds.  Roy Eastland
silverpoint on gesso on board.  1917 victims of bomb explosion in Folkestone.  Grid of tiny artwork images and script, taken from newspaper accounts of the event.  Artist states "I hope it is a respectful  piece of art".  Strong on narrative and emotion.

Apocalypse in Fragments .  Jolanta Rejs
monotype with pencil on reverse.
Horse's head image on monotype.  Looks like there was a wire grid laid over the painted image, and the paper pressed over.  Clever use of monotype, and quite large, so considerable skill required.

Crown.  Tim Patrick.
Very dark charcoal drawing of table and chairs at dusk, to question identity and perception of an object in space.  Very dark and hazy.  Interesting effect.