Zak Smith reports on the budding talent on display at the Shoreditch’s Royal Drawing School (ABOVE: Iona Roberts’ Bike ride on Skye)
The Royal Drawing School End of Year Exhibition is now running at the Royal Drawing School in Shoreditch after a phenomenal showing at Christie’s, and after a visit to the show exhibiting the cream of their crop, it’s not hard to see why it has previously been so well received.
The show features a selection of work from some of the school’s most accomplished artists, the culmination of an intensive postgraduate programme for 2015-16. Using a variety of media including pencil, marker pen, ink, watercolour, woodcuts, and etching, the exhibition is a fantastic showcase of the talent that exists within London, and for aspiring collectors it is a chance to see the stars of the future. The Royal Drawing School’s highly subscribed postgraduate programme offers up to 30 students a full scholarship to spend a year on an MA-level course. Since 2000 over 300 students have graduated, with alumni going on to pursue careers as fine art artists, illustrators, animators, and architects.
Artistic director Catherine Goodman said: ‘The Drawing Year is a course of study at postgraduate level which provides an opportunity for intensive research and practice in drawing from observation. Drawing can be direct, incisive, intimate, surprising, funny or confrontational. Using the most limited of means, it offers some of the most demanding opportunities for growth to a contemporary artist, both visually and intellectually, allowing a free transition between mediums. It is one of the simplest and yet the most endlessly complex of human activities, encompassing a wide scope of practice and interpretation.’
Related
One of the stars of the show is Liam Walker, a winner of the prestigious Jack Goldhill Award for Drawing. He graduated with a BA Hons in Painting & Drawing from Edinburgh College of Art in 2012. On graduating, Walker’s work was included in the New Contemporaries exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy.
His work is undeniably cheeky, focusing on sex, home and memory. One for the future, his art was snapped up early on during the show. The show itself is not only an amazing platform for talented artists but also for spotting those who will impact the artistic and literary world in years to come.
The students of The Drawing Year go on to achieve some brilliant things, such as Clara Drummond (Alumna, The Drawing Year, 2005) who won the BP Portrait Award 2016; and Kathryn Maple (Alumna, The Drawing Year, 2013) who won the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2016, not to mention Poppy Chancellor, author and artist behind CUT IT OUT (2016), and Harry Parker, author of Anatomy of a Soldier (2016).
Exhibiting until the 18th of January 2017, the show is an exciting, eclectic, and fun collection of works. More than that, it’s a great place to talent spot, and you can endorse these young artists in the best way possible. Who knows which star of the future you may pick up…
Royal Drawing School exhibitions
Content from our partners
