All of us at Leeds Arts University are proud to share that our Director of Undergraduate Studies, Professor Sheila Gaffney was one of only 13 entires shortlisted for the prestigious Trinity Buoy Working Drawing Award which is part of the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize Exhibition.
The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2021 received 3,300 entries from 1,673 drawing practitioners from 46 different countries for the exhibition.
Trinity Buoy Wharf is a centre for arts and cultural activities on the River Thames in London's Docklands, and since 1994, the annual Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize has established a reputation as the UK’s most important annual open exhibition of drawing. The exhibition is known amongst aspiring and indeed successful artists for its promotion and celebration of excellence in contemporary drawing practice.
The exhibition itself provides an important platform for drawing, and for artists, designers, and makers often acting as a propeller within their careers. The annual exhibitions are selected by passionate and revered drawing experts – artists, architects, curators, designers, writers, and collectors.
The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2021 included 13 drawings by 12 drawing practitioners, including Professor Gaffney, selected for the Working Drawing Award and display by Leonie Bell, Director of V&A Dundee, Charles O. Job, Designer and Architect, and Paul Finch, Programme Director of the World Architecture Festival.
The award winners were announced at a prestigious ceremony at Trinity Buoy Wharf in September.
Image: “After the Jugness of the Jug. A drawing to make sculpture from. Method: plan & elevation method with a touch of embodied dreaming thrown in”. Graphite and charcoal on Fabriano paper, 50 x 70 cm.
Professor Gaffney’s entry was titled ‘After the Jugness of the Jug. A drawing to make sculpture from. Method: plan & elevation method with a touch of embodied dreaming thrown in’. This drawing is part of her ongoing research into the relationship between thinking and making, which she shares with our students in her teaching. Although Sheila did not win the award itself she has thoroughly enjoyed the experience. She said;
‘To be one of only 12 finalists from thousands of entries from across the world has been really thrilling. The Trinity Buoy Wharf Prize is such a prestigious award and such a cultural hub for artists. I’ve enjoyed every moment of the process from creating my submission to attending the awards in person. Huge congratulations to Zahra Akbari Baseri for her winning drawing, it really was a stunning piece of work.’
Professor Sheila Gaffney was Head of Fine Art before progressing on to a number of other senior positions within Leeds Arts University. She is a sculptor whose Foundation and Undergraduate years were spent at the Camberwell School of Art & Crafts in London followed by postgraduate studies at the Slade School of Fine Art.
Sheila is the winner of several awards including the Natsopa Award for Sculpture and the Vikki Oppenheim Blum Rites of Passage Travel Award. She has also received bursaries from The Arts Council of England, Yorkshire and Humberside Arts, and the Yorkshire Arts Development Programme.
Follow her work on Instagram @sheilag.gaffney