Exhibitions, Events, Talks, Learning Projects and more – find out what’s happening at Drawing Room!
Find out our opening hours, how to get here and learn more about our space & local area.
Drawing Room/Tannery Arts Unit 1b, New Tannery Way Bermondsey London, SE1 5WS
Our Learning projects make drawing relevant and accessible to our community – for schools, teachers, families & local groups. Come and Draw!
Free and open to all, our Library is a unique collection of around 4,000 books dedicated to the exploration of contemporary drawing.
Our Members support all that we do and enjoy exclusive events, talks, tours and studio visits – find out how you can join!
Buy publications related to our exhibitions, as well as unique artworks and limited editions.
Find out more about Drawing Room, what we do, and our relationship with studio provider Tannery Arts.
Tannery Arts is a small, independent charity concerned with supporting the professional development of emerging and established artists through the provision of affordable studios, promoting their practice through opportunities to exhibit work, develop projects, generate partnerships with local authorities, private property owners and social housing organisations as well as engage in learning activities.
Top Picks of Drawing Biennial 2017 works from luminaries such as Christopher Le Brun, Katharine Stout, Russell Tovey, Caroline Achaintre, Rana Begum, Matt Calderwood, Michael Craig Martin, Vanessa Jackson, and David Musgrave. Register to bid and create your own list of favourites here. The online auction will be live from 10am Wednesday 12 April until 9pm Wednesday 26 April.
Frances Morris, Director, Tate Modern
TOP PICKS: Andrea Bowers, Layla Curtis, Mark Dion, Leo Fitzmaurice and Rose Wylie.
James Fox, art historian and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
TOP PICKS: Mohammed Qasim Ashfaq, James Brooks, Dove Allouche, Eloise Hawser, Anna Lytridou, Prem Sahib, George Shaw, Knut Henrik Henriksen, Niamh O’ Malley, and Thomas Zummer
Christopher Le Brun, artist and President of the Royal Academy
TOP PICKS: Nicolas Deshayes, Nick Goss, Chantal Joffe, Michael Landy, Jeff McMillan and Charlotte Verity.
Katharine Stout, Deputy Director Institute of Contemporary Arts and co-founder of Drawing Room
“I’m blown away by the quality, the inventiveness, and the dexterity of all the drawings so generously donated by the artists this year. I could select 10 drawings, ten times over. I love the freedom in all of these drawings – freedom to experiment with what drawing is and can be, freedom to play with colour, freedom to play with form, freedom to play with ideas, freedom to be playful.”
TOP PICKS: Hayley Tompkins, Celia Hempton, Alison Wilding, Laure Prouvost, Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze, Anthea Hamilton, Donna Huddleston, Jessica Voorsanger, Caroline Achaintre and Alice Channer.
Fatos Üstek, Curator, Art Night 2017
TOP PICKS: Caroline Achaintre, Ronald Cornelissen, Mark Fairnington, Rachel Goodyear, Vlatka Horvat, Benjamin Deakin, Margarita Gluzberg, Ali Kazim, Anna Lucas and Emma Stibbon
Russell Tovey, actor
“Another work that continues Eddie's [Peake] play with words. He's like a sexy, street Ed Ruscha. Love Prem [Sahib]. And love this solid strong work. A great piece.”
TOP PICKS: Michael Craig-Martin, Ansel Krut, Markus Vater, Prem Sahib, Eddie Peake, Nicolas Deshayes and Francis Upritchard.
Shanay Jhaveri, Assistant Curator of South Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
TOP PICKS: Tonico Lemos Auad, Michael Müller, Caroline Achaintre, Jeff McMillan, Mohammed Qasim Ashfaq, Nick Goss, Niamh o'Malley and Thomas Zummer.
Caroline Achaintre, artist
TOP PICKS: Anna Paterson, Caragh Thuring and Nicolas Deshayes
Vanessa Jackson, artist
TOP PICKS: Frank Ammerlaan, Rana Begum, Alice Anderson, George Shaw, John Smith, Julião Sarmento, Yelena Popova, Ciara Phillips, and Ali Kazim.
David Musgrave, artist
TOP PICKS: John Smith, Alan Kane, Angela de la Cruz, and Emma Talbot.
Matt Calderwood, artist
Aleksandra Mir's drawing “might be my favourite of the entire exhibiton”
TOP PICKS: Knut Henrik Henriksen, Rana Begum, Rob Chavasse, David Batchelor, Rhys Coren, Richard Deacon, Margarita Gluzberg, Rachel Goodyear, John Smith, Caragh Thuring, Emma Stibbon, Markus Vater, and Brit Meyer.
Rana Begum, artist
TOP PICKS: Angela de la Cruz, Claudia Wieser, Alice Anderson, Alice Channer, Eva Rothschild, Nicky Hirst, Alexnder Gorlizki, Rachel Goodyear, Radhika Khimji, Kelly Best, Lothar Götz, and Andrew Bick.
Andrew Renton, Professor of Curating, Goldsmiths
The transparent democracy of the Drawing Room biennial has made it one of the most cherished events in the contemporary art scene in London. A push pull intimacy of hundreds of drawings, almost all the same size, without hierarchy, takes the temperature of what making art could be today. The show culminates in an auction and the proceeds provide core funding for the next two years for this crucial institution. More than this the Biennial constitutes a network and extended community of artists. Any illustration does the show a disservice. Assume it's nowhere near representative of the enormity of the whole thing.
Drawing_Room_Drawing_Biennial_2017_Dan_Weill_Photography-78