20 Apr 2016
Graduate makes waves at Saatchi Gallery art exhibition
Fine Art graduate, Grace Wooler, has been chosen by the Saatchi Gallery to exhibit her work as part of their School Prize Retrospective Exhibition.
The Saatchi Gallery have invited Grace to participate in the exhibition to create a wall drawing that represents the development of her artwork and her current drawing practice.
In 2011, Grace was shortlisted for the Saatchi Gallery/Sunday Telegraph Art Prize for Schools for her portrait painting of her grandfather . The new work will be displayed alongside her 2011 entry in order to show how her ideas and approaches have evolved through further education within the arts.
Grace’s artwork spans across a 9 metre piece of wall within the gallery. It depicts waves of dark intense areas of graphite which meet areas of large loops, creating contrast and movement. The piece draws attention to the simplicity of the pencil which usually only gets used for preparatory purposes within the confines of sketchbooks.
Commenting on her piece, Grace said: “I decided that I wanted to stretch the drawing across the entire length of the wall so that it could interact with the space of the gallery.”
“Twelve pencils later, 2 sanding pads, hundreds of sharpenings and, 30 hours of drawing I managed to complete the piece. The drawing exists directly on the surface of the wall, allowing the space to become transformed. There is an ephemeral quality to the drawing, knowing that it will only exist for a short amount of time before it has to be painted over.”
The Saatchi Gallery aims to provide a forum for contemporary art, presenting work by unseen artists that have been rarely or never exhibited in the UK.
The exhibition is currently open to the public, and a launch night will be held at the gallery on Tuesday 26th April.