Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2026: exhibition

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2026 of £15,000 will be announced on Wednesday 16 September at Trinity Buoy Wharf in London, along with the Trinity Buoy Wharf Student Drawing Award of £2,000, and Trinity Buoy Wharf Three Boroughs Drawing Award of £1,000 (open to those living and/or working in Tower Hamlets, Newham and Greenwich).

92 drawings by 86 artists are shortlisted for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2026 from an international submission by Matthew Burrows MBE, Sook-Kyung Lee and Anita Taylor.  The exhibition of shortlisted drawings is open daily from Thursday 17 September to Sunday 4 October 2026 at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London E14 0JY, before touring in the UK until 2027.

Known as the UK's most prestigious annual open exhibition for drawing, the international call for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2026 received 2,621 entries by 1,403 artists from 48 countries for the 2026 exhibition and awards.

The 92 shortlisted drawings are made by 86 artists living and working in the UK (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales), Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Spain, and the USA. The selected drawings represent a diversity of contemporary drawing practice today, from modest and large-format works on paper to moving image and three-dimensional drawings that encompass an array of subject matter and content from observational and documentary drawing, social commentary, exploration of scientific systems, abstract and expressive depictions, storytelling, narratives, and reimagined worlds.

The Selection Panel comprised Matthew Burrows MBE, artist and founder of Artist Support Pledge, Sook-Kyung Lee, Director of the Whitworth and Professor of Curatorial Practices at The University of Manchester, and Professor Anita Taylor, artist, curator and Associate Vice Principal (Research & Innovation), University of Dundee.

Susan Absolon / Elisa Alaluusua / Iain Andrews / Lucy Austin / Fi Bailey / Jeanette Barnes / Sharon Beavan / Vivien Blackett / Mandy Bonnell / Jane Bottery / Sian Bowen / Ruth Brumby / Lucinda Burgess / Caroline Burraway / Richard Burton / Robbie Bushe / Stephen Carley / Annie Cattrell / Louise Cattrell / Jung-Geun Choi / Liz Coxford / Yvonne Crossley / Kelly Cumberland / Adam Dant / Toni Davey / Jane Dixon / Steven Dixon / Sarah Duncan / Roy Eastland / Bella Easton / Kristian Evju / Sophie Firth / Charlie Ford / Efe Gago / Greg Genestine-Charlton / Ann Gillies / The Baron Gilvan / Andy Gomez / Aron Greenwood / Richard Gregory / Nick Grellier / Elena Grossi / Lee Hardman / Russell Herron / Harriet Mena Hill / Tracy Hill / Charlotte Hodes / Lucie Holzer / Alanna Luz Hutton / Christopher Jones / Nick Kennedy / Gary Lawrence / M Lohrum / Juliette Losq / William Lowry / Norman Mathieson / Heather McAteer / Kate McDonnell / Janet Melrose / George Meyrick / Jim Mooney / Tamsin Nagel / Simon Page / Patricia Paolozzi Cain / Lalinthorn Phencharoen / Sandra Porter / Dan Roach / Lewis Robinson / Clive Rose / Eunice Routledge / Paul Ryan / Minty Sainsbury / Solveig Settemsdal / Maggie Shafran / Chris Shaw Hughes / Stuart Shearer / Mark Shields / David Symonds / Sarah Tew / Chris Thomas / Jonathan Waller / Calum Wallis / Hannah Wu / Qinlin Yang / Trevor Youdale / Zhi Qian Jacqueline Yu

"I can see how artists approached drawing as a medium, but also a method, and it's quite amazing to see such variety and diversity of understanding and interpretation." said Sook-Kyung Lee, Director of the Whitworth, The University of Manchester. "Drawing is probably one of the oldest forms of art, and it crosses time, regions and cultures," she added. "You can see different ways of looking at, and capturing, different moments in our lives in these drawings."

"The diversity and breadth of work has been really astonishing," said Matthew Burrows MBE, Artist and Founder of Artist Support Pledge. "It's a tour de force of ideas and of experiences - from life and death to joy and birth.Anyone can pick up a piece of paper and a pencil and make a mark on a surface," he said. "By repeatedly doing that, and looking at it and thinking about it, we learn to see. That's what this prize is really about."