Big Draw Little Draw

Prompted by Quentin Blake’s question Where would we be without drawing? Abecedarian Gallery celebrates drawing throughout September with both an exhibition and a community drawing event. The exhibition “Little Draw: is an exhibition of 23 small scale drawings (sixteen inches maximum in any direction) by twenty artists from throughout the US. The selections were made by Dr. Gwen Chanzit, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Herbert Bayer Collection & Archive at the Denver Art Museum. Below is Dr. Chanzit’s statement regarding this exhibit:

A juror’s primary responsibility is to select the strongest of the work submitted, without preconception or prejudice towards a particular style, or subject. For me, this strength is determined by a combination of factors that may include technique, original concept, and/or strong composition. Sometimes there is something indefinable that brings you back to look and to re-look. In making selections, I seek a wide spectrum of works of diverse media and style, each of which employs its medium in compelling ways. As one might expect of an exhibition of small scale drawings—there is a great variety here. And that is all to the good.

Compelling work has no boundaries or regimen; it may be realistic, abstract, serious, humorous, self referential or contextual, of a singular medium or mixed media, and it may be functional or not. In the case of this project, the submissions were appropriately varied: some are delicate, others bold; some crisply graphic in quality, others more textural, some celebrate the polychrome, others stick to grisaille; and some expand into the “all over,” while others remain contained.

Works on paper have a special appeal because of their directness—one gets a glimpse of an artist’s unfettered self, without the overlays that sometime accompany large format or laboriously worked compositions. Happily, there was no formula for either the making of this work, or for its evaluation. The submissions are diverse in style and high in quality. This work’s validity goes beyond the parameters of any competition guidelines—quality art shows itself, without fail. I look forward to seeing these drawings in concert with each other, exhibited in a single space, for all to enjoy.