Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize reaches Dorset

February 16, 2024 Matt Bannister

My drawing ‘Swerve’ is now on tour as part of the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2023 Exhibition and is on show at TheGallery, AUB Arts University Bournemouth.

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

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

Art On The Streets Of Croydon

February 7, 2024 Matt Bannister

My paintings have been blown up (onto banners) as part of a town-wide art installation in central Croydon.

Three designs of lamp-post banners - featuring slices of my paintings ‘February’, ‘People’ and ‘Night Flowers’ are now hanging up and repeated on the High Street and elsewhere in Croydon. Alongside them are some other really bright, eye-catching works on banners by local creatives Miguel Sopena, Divya Sharma, Skye Baker and Melanie Russell. The Creative Croydon initiative set up by Croydon BID has returned to Croydon town centre this Winter creating an open-air art gallery for people to enjoy.

Thanks so much to Julia at 31% Wool and the Check Out Croydon team for making this happen. Thanks to Glenn Foster for taking these photographs, too. The whole display of work is up until April 2024.

For more background to the project visit Croydonist.

All the artists’ works appearing in the outdoor ‘exhibition’.

ING Discerning Eye 2023 Exhibition

January 2, 2024 Matt Bannister

A bit of late news but my trio of wood panel drawings ‘Junction’, ’Stafford Road’ and ‘Vauxhall’ and my two Devon paintings ‘Pause (I)’ and ‘Pause (II)’ were all selected for the 2023 ING Discerning Eye Exhibition at the end of last year.

It was held at The Mall Galleries from 17th to 26th November 2023, and online until the 31st December 2023. The ING Discerning Eye annual exhibition is a show of small, domestic scale, works independently selected by six prominent figures from different areas of the art world: two artists, two collectors and two critics. This is the third time I’ve exhibited with the Discerning Eye (I was previously selected in 2020 and 2022).

I had a lively lovely evening at the artists’ opening of the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition. It was great to have five pieces on the large wall curated by Tony Adams. Excuse the double-posed photo composite but I couldn’t get them all in the same frame with me! So good to have four of them hanging together.

The exhibition was curated by a star-studded panel including singer Ian “H” Watkins and former England footballer Tony Adams among other tastemakers. Out of 6,500 entries, 628 artworks by 387 creatives were shortlisted for this prestigious show. The ING Discerning Eye showcases talent in a wide range of media – painting, drawing, sculpture, print, photography, video, textile, ceramic and more. This is the 25th year of the Discerning Eye charity’s partnership with bank ING.

Penny Harris and Marine Costello discuss the work. [ Photo: Parker Harris ]

Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2023

August 9, 2023 Matt Bannister

I’m really pleased to reveal that ‘Swerve’, 2022 - the fifth of my ’Streetcombing’ series of drawings - has been selected for the prestigious Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2023.

***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.

Town House Open 2023

June 26, 2023 Matt Bannister

My painting ‘Pause (II)’ features in Part 1 of the 'Town House Open 23’ exhibition.

This is the fourth year of their Open exhibition with more selected artists than before, so the show has been split into two. Part 1: Paintings & Drawings (24th June - 30th July), Part 2: Original Prints & Mixed Media (5th August - 10th September).

The Town House is an amazing building tucked in a corner of Spitalfields: a gallery, shop and coffee shop that has been in an early eighteenth century building opposite Hawksmoor’s Christ Church for more than twenty years. Well worth visiting if you can (and to see my painting in the flesh, of course). 5 Fournier Street, London, E1 6QE. Open Tuesdays to Sundays.