The order of the drawing

We invited submissions to the call for drawings in response to the theme of ‘drawing in relation’ suggesting that drawing can be considered relational. That drawing is a means by which relations and the conditions through which they are created, maintained, and broken can be investigated. Connections are made between divisible surfaces, relations are engendered. Rather than being isolated, these surfaces exist in relation to their milieus. In this way relations propagate and disseminate outwards. Simultaneously relations are brought inwards, what is exterior and separable to the drawing act is interiorised; the milieu makes its way onto the page—drawing in relation. To draw is to make contact, to touch and be touched, and yet there is discontinuity, contact is severed, and surfaces break away.

Submissions were invited from anyone practicing drawing in a traditional or expanded way. We received an immense response to the call from artists across the globe, working in diverse media, creatively interpreting, and responding to the theme. We would like to extend special thanks to Arno Kramer for his thoughtful approach to the selection of 30 drawings from the vast submissions. Thank you also to everyone who has supported the exploration of the theme and the development of the exhibition.

Recordings of the Drawing in Relation research presentations can be viewed on the Drawing Research Network website.

Arno Kramer works as a visual artist in the Netherlands and in Ireland. He has compiled various exhibitions, particularly exhibitions of drawings. In 2005 he curated Into Drawing Contemporary Dutch Drawing. This show did travel to 5 European countries. In 2009 his first curated exhibition in Ireland Into Irish Drawing was presented in the Limerick City Gallery of Art and did travel also to different countries in Europe. He curated 5 shows as guest curator in Ballina Arts Centre. Did Masterclasses for Ballinglen Arts Foundation and VAI. He is the founder of Drawing Centre Diepenheim in The Netherlands. In 2011 he curated together with Diana Wind All About Drawing 100 Dutch Artist was presented in Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. He was for 20 years a teacher at the AKI Akademie voor Beeldende Kunst en Vormgeving (Academy of the Visual Arts and Design) in Enschede, the Netherlands, and has been a guest teacher at art colleges in Ireland, England, Scotland, and the USA as well. He publishes on the visual arts and also writes poetry. In 2017 Salmon Poetry published Morningrustle.  

His own work has been displayed in the Netherlands, Ireland, England, the USA, Sweden, and Germany and is in private and public collections in these countries. As the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Twenthe Enschede, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Museum De Fundatie Heino, CODA Museum Apeldoorn, Fries Museum Leeuwarden, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam and in Ireland in the Limerick City Gallery of Art Limerick and the Model in Sligo. In 2022 the Arts Council Ireland purchased one of his huge drawings. Arno Kramer has been awarded for the Cultural Prize of the city Deventer and was appointed Officer in the Order of Orange Nasau for his work in the domain of contemporary drawing. 

In May 2022 his solo exhibition In Time opened in the Limerick City Gallery of Art.