“. . . a focus on technique, innovation
and expanded approaches . . .”
“Whether drawing is central to or just one aspect of these artists’ practice, many in the exhibition share similar affiliations with drawing, describing the process as meditative, a way to reflect on personal experience and social discourse, a method for dedicated observation, or an attempt to harness the atmosphere of a moment,” curator Lucy Latella tells me about the Dobell Drawing Prize exhibition.
Eamonn Jackson, Aftermath (detail), 2021–23, graphite on paper. © the artist. Photograph: Eamonn Jackson. Courtesy the artist
Celebrating its twenty-fourth edition, the biennial exhibition showcases the work of fifty-six finalists selected from 965 nationwide entries. With a focus on technique, innovation and expanded approaches, the exhibition is presented at the National Art School Gallery in partnership with the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation.
Devoted to the enduring importance of drawing in contemporary art practice, this year’s winner of the $30,000 prize is Rosemary Lee for 24–1, 2024, a work that observes compositional and tonal profundity in everyday life. Lee’s work will become part of the National Art School’s collection, which has been built over the past 120 years.
Rosemary Lee, 24–1, 2024, pencil on paper. © the artist. Photograph: Rosemary Lee. Courtesy the artist and Flinders Street Gallery, Sydney
Latella says the prize, with its significant legacy over three decades, is both a celebration of conventional drawing techniques and, increasingly, a platform for expanded contemporary practice, welcoming a wide range of mediums. Having become an important showcase of how the principles of gesture and mark making can be interrogated in contemporary art practice more broadly, it provides a snapshot of the concerns of contemporary artists in Australia today.
“It was an exciting challenge to bring together such a diverse range of works in both concept and materiality, including site-specific installations, collaborations, and participatory works,” Latella says. “The artists’ insights and enthusiasm towards the exhibition made for an enjoyable and stimulating curatorial process, which considered the works individually and in the context of a large group exhibition, finding common threads and interesting dialogues between works.”
Walking me through the gallery space, Latella shows how these common threads emerge throughout the exhibition – “opening on the ground floor with personal works that consider identity, domesticity and familial ties, as well as embodied practices and works that evolve over time.” This unfolding of common threads continues on level one, “with works that consider intersocial dynamics and the transformation of neighbourhoods through urban renewal and gentrification.”
Additionally, on level one are works concerned with environmental connection and care. Latella expands on the above considerations and points to some standouts. “Centrally placed in this double-height space are works which address the impacts of such urbanisation on the environment, including Wiradjuri woman Shona Trescott’s installations that highlight Australia’s high rates of deforestation and ongoing struggles of land ownership and environmental regeneration.
Julie Paterson, Menindee Memorial Loop (detail), 2024, cotton, linen, thread. © the artist. Photograph: Amanda Kaye. Courtesy the artist
“Adjacent works such as J9 Stanton’s sculptural drawing of aluminium mesh and Julie Paterson’s ongoing collaborative textile project draw attention to environmental devastation caused by agricultural industries. Both Trescott and Paterson’s works invite visitors to participate, offering a sense of hope to respond and draw attention to these urgent issues of our time.”
When asked what the works of the exhibition have to tell us in the present historical moment and what the exhibition has to offer visitors, Latella says: “Materially and formally, the works reflect the extraordinary time and labour dedicated to them amidst the chaos of contemporary life, particularly in a time of rapid image consumption and AI. They also offer generous conceptual entry points through which visitors can engage, draw their own associations, and reflect on societal issues that we face more broadly.”
Dr Joseph Brennan is a Lambda Literary Award-nominated author based in Tropical North Queensland.
NAS Gallery
11 April to 21 June 2025
Sydney
Originally published in print – Art Almanac, May 2025 issue, pp. 33–35
