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Drawing (Paper) Show ‘25 Open Call 

 

 

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Open Call to exhibit in the Drawing (Paper) Show ‘25 at The Bridewell Studios and Gallery, Liverpool @bridewellstudiosliverpool, be published in the 10th Edition of Drawing Paper and be featured in the Directory of Drawing Artists (DoDA).

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The exhibition runs during Liverpool Biennial ‘25 from Friday 11th July until Thursday 31st July, with the exhibition launching Thursday 10th July, (times tbc).

 

Be published in the 10th Edition of Drawing Paper, both a printed and digital publication.

 

Featured in the Directory of Drawing Artists (DoDA) is a Directory which exclusively features artists who have exhibited in the Drawing (Paper) Shows. The Directory of Drawing Artists (DoDA) allows people to find, hire or buy directly from artists who specialise in drawing, with a 100% of any sales or fees going directly to the artist. 

 

How to enter

  • Enter HERE via a google form (sign in required)

  • Pay entry fee (£10 per artwork/max of 3 artworks)

  • Upload image

  • Include: artwork’s title, medium, size, year made (must not be more than 3 years old)

  • Provide your Instagram handle you would like us to tag when we share your entry/entries on our Instagram stories

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It is not required for entries to be shared in our Instagram stories, however if you would like your entry to be shared and tagged, please make sure it is enabled in your Instagram's privacy settings.

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Cost 
£10 per artwork submitted, maximum of 3 submissions per artist. Please note only one work will be exhibited from artists selected. Buy entries here.

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Who can enter

International open call to all drawing artists.

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What can be entered

We are particularly interested in drawings that challenge the conventional definitions of drawing. Drawing in any form and in/on any medium. 

Work that exceeds 1.5 meters in any direction or has very specific hanging requirements, please contact us to check if we can accept it.

For live or site-specific work please upload an image/video of previous work/examples of what you would propose to do in the medium section.

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Triptych/ Diptych  - can be submitted as a singular piece.

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Hanging specifications - work does not have to be framed, we do not accept clip frames. If your work requires any specific hanging directions please contact us.

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Deadline
Artists can apply from 14th April until 11th May 2025, Midnight (GMT). 

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Notification

Both successful applicants and unsuccessful applicants will be notified by 25th May.  Please note we will be unable to provide feedback on unsuccessful applications. 

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Terms and Conditions

  • Entry is via Google form (sign in required), successful applicants will also need to complete a Google form.

  • Work must be your own, created within the last 3 years, by entering you are confirming that it is original work that you have the right to publish.

  • Artists are able to enter up to 3 works but please note only one work will be exhibited from the artists selected.

  • Please note when you buy entries we will ask for your email and instagram handle.

  • Entries will be shared in our stories with your permission (it is not required). If you do want your entries shared and tagged please make sure it is enabled in your Instagram's privacy settings.

  • Bought entries cannot be refunded under any circumstance. 

  • Images uploaded will be only considered with the correct/matching number of entries bought. 

  • Work must be delivered and collected from a Liverpool collection point, times and dates to be arranged with successful applicants, with successful applicants responsible for cost of delivery.

  • Artworks do not need to be for sale, if they are a commission of 10% will be taken by The Bridewell Studios and Gallery.

  • Work must be available from 15th June until the close of the exhibition 31st July. 

  • The curators have the right to document work for social media, the website, Drawing Paper 10, DoDa and may be used as promotion for the exhibition and/or events.

  • You will be required to send via google form an Image of work suitable for high resolution printing (300 dpi).

  • Successful applicants will be added to the Directory of Drawing Artists once the exhibition has been completed, you will also be asked to complete a google form.

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Dates

Deadline: opens 14th April, Closes 11th May, Midnight (GMT)

Applicants notified: Sunday 25th May

Works delivered by/available from: 15th June until Thursday 31st July

Exhibition launch: Thursday 10th July
Exhibition: Friday 11th July until Thursday 31st July

All artworks must be collected by Thursday 7th August

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★★★ Special Guest Judge to be announced ★★★

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The Drawing (Paper) Show '25 is part of the Independents Biennial

Terms and Conditions
Judges
Curtis Holder
Curtis Holder

One Man And His Dog, coloured pencil and acrylic gouache on paper, 120 x 120 cm, 2022
One Man And His Dog, coloured pencil and acrylic gouache on paper, 120 x 120 cm, 2022

Curtis Holder
Curtis Holder

1/6
Curtis Holder (born Leicester, 1968) is a London-based artist who works in graphite and coloured pencil to create large-scale portraits and figurative works on paper. Rooted in intimate conversations with his sitters, Holder’s practice blends dialogue and drawing to uncover the human, the subtle, and the often overlooked or marginalised. His multilayered pencil portraits take shape through a dynamic interplay of febrile lines, revealing the form, movement, and emotional depth of his subjects. Holder gained widespread recognition in 2020 after winning the prestigious Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year competition. Since then, he has continued to garner critical acclaim through solo and group exhibitions, artist residencies, and commissions, earning numerous accolades, including The John Ruskin Prize in 2024. In 2021, Holder held his first solo exhibition, Something Unspoken, at 45, Park Lane in London. He was appointed the National Theatre's first-ever Artist in Residence in 2022, leading to his 2023 exhibition The Makers: Portraits from Backstage. In 2023, Holder was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery and the Terrence Higgins Trust to create a posthumous portrait of Terry Higgins, one of the first people in the UK to die of an AIDS-related illness. He also presented Curtis Holder: Portraits of Brotherhood at Guildford House Gallery in 2024, exploring themes of identity and masculinity through intimate portraits of Black and Brown men. From 2023 to 2024, Holder completed an 18-month residency at Leeds Art Gallery in collaboration with the UAL Decolonising Arts Institute, focusing on addressing racial injustices in UK museums and galleries. In 2024-25, this work culminated in the exhibition Silent Echoes, Spoken Truths: Curtis Holder. During the same period, he also presented his solo exhibition Curtis Holder: Drawing Carlos Acosta at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, which showcased portraits from the Sky Arts competition, including his commission of Carlos Acosta, director of Birmingham Royal Ballet. Holder is a member of Contemporary British Portrait Painters (CBPP), The Society of Graphic Fine Art (SGFA), and The Pastel Society (PS), and his work is held in prominent public collections, including the National Portrait Gallery, Leeds Art Gallery, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and Soho House. In addition to his artistic practice, Holder has been a judge for several major international art competitions, including The Cass Art Prize (2024), The Derwent Art Prize (2023), and the Jackson’s Painting Prize (2022). Website: www.curtisholder.co.uk Instagram: @curtisartist Email: contact@curtisholder.co.uk
1/0
Colette Lilley (b. 1984, United Kingdom) is an award winning drawing artist who works predominantly on paper in limited mediums. She has a Masters in Art and Design Practice from Loughborough University (2009) where she researched the link between dyslexia and creativity. The act of learning to see inspires Colette’s work, as observational drawing can quiet and focus the mind. Being neurodiverse, Colette often feels overwhelmed by her chaotic thoughts and through her drawings has created systems to give her thoughts a linear order. Drawing in a grid format, drawing each square in isolation, as well as the use of a limited medium, reduces distractions, allowing Colette to be in the present moment and her thoughts to progress. Each square of the drawing which is part of the whole also represents a moment in time and is a drawing in its own right. This has enabled Colette to continue her drawing practice since becoming a mother. Being able to continue her drawing practice is important to Colette, which is shown in how she explores ways of developing a daily drawing practice. Colette has won the Visual Arts Association Exhibition & Scholarship Award 2024 and the Comme Ca Art X AWOL Studios Open Call Exhibition 2023. Colette's has exhibited nationwide, in venues including the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, RBSA Gallery, Birmingham, Guilford House Gallery, West Surrey and the Mall Galleries, London. Colette co founded the Liverpool Artists’ Network, an artist-led initiative that connects visual artists, art organisations, art venues and art groups based in Merseyside. Colette also set up and runs @‌Artist_Parent is an Instagram account dedicated to sharing the stories & artwork of artist parents, grandparents & caregivers. With the aim to create a support network encouraging the creativity of parents.
Jon Barraclough
Jon Barraclough

Falls 2025
Falls 2025

Another Dream Drawing (About Beauty, Treasure and Danger)
Another Dream Drawing (About Beauty, Treasure and Danger)

Jon Barraclough
Jon Barraclough

1/6
Jon Barraclough is a maker of drawings, photographer, film-maker, teacher, researcher and life-long advocate for drawing in all of its forms. Born 1957 in Bradford, Yorkshire UK, he is currently resident in Liverpool and North Yorkshire. He studied Fine Art at Bradford Art College in the 1970s and Graphic Art at the former Newcastle Polytechnic. His creative career began as a photographer’s assistant in New York City, then moving to London in the 1980s where he co-established the multi-disciplinary Unknown Studios. He now works primarily in drawing and drawing devices, but also works with photography, performance, film and sound in relation to his drawing practice. As a teacher he established The Drawing Studio in Liverpool with fellow artist Rick Creed. He was former Director of The Liverpool School of Art (Liverpool John Moores University), a founder and co-publisher of DRAWING PAPER UK and co-curator of the international exhibition series DRAWING(PAPER)SHOW. He has worked in Newcastle, London, New York, Manchester and Liverpool. He describes his drawing practice as an almost daily habit. His work uses a mixture of realism, surrealism and abstraction - often allowing the intuitive and the accidental to guide his process. There is a playful element of illusion, mystery and magic in the work. He uses dry (graphite, pigment, pastel, soil and pigment) and wet (watercolour, ink, blending oils) media, trying to exploit their interactions and contradictions. His works are largely on paper although he finds any drawing surface potentially useful to work on - especially if it’s had another purpose. Jon encourages a collaborative approach and has fashioned lo-fi drawing devices that encourage participatory image making and shared experimentation - often with the presence of music or sound to act as a creative flux. He works with producers, musicians and composers as partners in image creation in live, performative settings.
Sarah Jane Richards
Sarah Jane Richards

Awakening Burst
Awakening Burst

Plas Bodfa, Drawing Installation
Plas Bodfa, Drawing Installation

Sarah Jane Richards
Sarah Jane Richards

1/6
Sarah Jane Richards is a Welsh artist currently living on the Wirral Peninsula. She holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Painting, Sculpture, and Printmaking from Leeds Beckett University, with additional studies at the Cyprus School of Art and the Universitat de Belles Artes in Barcelona. Her artistic practice primarily encompasses painting, drawing, installations and curating, with a research focus on mental health and environmental issues. As a practising artist, her work is centred on capturing reflections and observations of the environment through mark-making techniques such as walking, meditating, and drawing. These activities inform her paintings, drawings, and installations, which are deeply connected to specific places and moments in time. Sarah Jane is particularly interested in embodied consciousness intertwined with the landscape, aiming to emphasize the physical and temporal dimensions of perception. By integrating walking and drawing, and creating drawing installations, her artworks serve as indices of these movements rather than simple naturalistic depictions. Sarah Janes recent studies explore how art serves as a powerful tool to raise awareness, foster emotional connections, and inspire action to address the climate change crisis and envision sustainable futures. She is particularly interested in nature connectedness, a psychological construct that extends beyond mere contact with nature to a profound sense of meaningful engagement with the natural world. In this area, she has been co-leader to a Heritage Lottery Funded commission with the Sefton Coast Landscape Partnership, creating a series of six sculptures at key points along the Sefton Coastal Path. Additionally, she was a core artist in the Back from the Brink programme, an ambitious nationwide partnership aimed at rescuing threatened species from extinction and promoting recovery through community arts events. Alongside her role teaching Fine Art BA Hons at Liverpool Hope University Sarah Jane works within the intersection of arts and health, embracing the philosophy of social prescribing, which acknowledges that many health conditions have broader social determinants beyond biomedical origins. She serves as a core artist for the award-winning Arts on Prescription program, Creative Alternatives, under The ALEF Trust. This program supports individuals suffering from anxiety, stress, and depression in the North West. Sarah Jane has been commissioned to develop and facilitate projects in hospitals emphasizing individual, community, environmental, positive societal change, and socio-structural factors within a transdisciplinary framework of wellbeing. As a curator Sarah Jane enjoys working with artists, bringing artists together, creating dialogue, sharing and promoting ideas around art and the making of art.

Curtis Holder

Curtis Holder (born Leicester, 1968) is a London-based artist who works in graphite and coloured pencil to create large-scale portraits and figurative works on paper. Rooted in intimate conversations with his sitters, Holder’s practice blends dialogue and drawing to uncover the human, the subtle, and the often overlooked or marginalised. His multilayered pencil portraits take shape through a dynamic interplay of febrile lines, revealing the form, movement, and emotional depth of his subjects. Holder gained widespread recognition in 2020 after winning the prestigious Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year competition. Since then, he has continued to garner critical acclaim through solo and group exhibitions, artist residencies, and commissions, earning numerous accolades, including The John Ruskin Prize in 2024. In 2021, Holder held his first solo exhibition, Something Unspoken, at 45, Park Lane in London. He was appointed the National Theatre's first-ever Artist in Residence in 2022, leading to his 2023 exhibition The Makers: Portraits from Backstage. In 2023, Holder was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery and the Terrence Higgins Trust to create a posthumous portrait of Terry Higgins, one of the first people in the UK to die of an AIDS-related illness. He also presented Curtis Holder: Portraits of Brotherhood at Guildford House Gallery in 2024, exploring themes of identity and masculinity through intimate portraits of Black and Brown men. From 2023 to 2024, Holder completed an 18-month residency at Leeds Art Gallery in collaboration with the UAL Decolonising Arts Institute, focusing on addressing racial injustices in UK museums and galleries. In 2024-25, this work culminated in the exhibition Silent Echoes, Spoken Truths: Curtis Holder. During the same period, he also presented his solo exhibition Curtis Holder: Drawing Carlos Acosta at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, which showcased portraits from the Sky Arts competition, including his commission of Carlos Acosta, director of Birmingham Royal Ballet. Holder is a member of Contemporary British Portrait Painters (CBPP), The Society of Graphic Fine Art (SGFA), and The Pastel Society (PS), and his work is held in prominent public collections, including the National Portrait Gallery, Leeds Art Gallery, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and Soho House. In addition to his artistic practice, Holder has been a judge for several major international art competitions, including The Cass Art Prize (2024), The Derwent Art Prize (2023), and the Jackson’s Painting Prize (2022).

Colette Lilley

Colette Lilley (b. 1984, United Kingdom) is an award winning drawing artist who works predominantly on paper in limited mediums. She has a Masters in Art and Design Practice from Loughborough University (2009) where she researched the link between dyslexia and creativity. The act of learning to see inspires Colette’s work, as observational drawing can quiet and focus the mind. Being neurodiverse, Colette often feels overwhelmed by her chaotic thoughts and through her drawings has created systems to give her thoughts a linear order. Drawing in a grid format, drawing each square in isolation, as well as the use of a limited medium, reduces distractions, allowing Colette to be in the present moment and her thoughts to progress. Each square of the drawing which is part of the whole also represents a moment in time and is a drawing in its own right. This has enabled Colette to continue her drawing practice since becoming a mother. Being able to continue her drawing practice is important to Colette, which is shown in how she explores ways of developing a daily drawing practice. Colette has won the Visual Arts Association Exhibition & Scholarship Award 2024 and the Comme Ca Art X AWOL Studios Open Call Exhibition 2023. Colette's has exhibited nationwide, in venues including the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, RBSA Gallery, Birmingham, Guilford House Gallery, West Surrey and the Mall Galleries, London. Colette co founded the Liverpool Artists’ Network, an artist-led initiative that connects visual artists, art organisations, art venues and art groups based in Merseyside. Colette also set up and runs @‌Artist_Parent is an Instagram account dedicated to sharing the stories & artwork of artist parents, grandparents & caregivers. With the aim to create a support network encouraging the creativity of parents.

Jon  Barraclough

Jon Barraclough is a maker of drawings, photographer, film-maker, teacher, researcher and life-long advocate for drawing in all of its forms. Born 1957 in Bradford, Yorkshire UK, he is currently resident in Liverpool and North Yorkshire. He studied Fine Art at Bradford Art College in the 1970s and Graphic Art at the former Newcastle Polytechnic. His creative career began as a photographer’s assistant in New York City, then moving to London in the 1980s where he co-established the multi-disciplinary Unknown Studios. He now works primarily in drawing and drawing devices, but also works with photography, performance, film and sound in relation to his drawing practice. As a teacher he established The Drawing Studio in Liverpool with fellow artist Rick Creed. He was former Director of The Liverpool School of Art (Liverpool John Moores University), a founder and co-publisher of DRAWING PAPER UK and co-curator of the international exhibition series DRAWING(PAPER)SHOW. He has worked in Newcastle, London, New York, Manchester and Liverpool. He describes his drawing practice as an almost daily habit. His work uses a mixture of realism, surrealism and abstraction - often allowing the intuitive and the accidental to guide his process. There is a playful element of illusion, mystery and magic in the work. He uses dry (graphite, pigment, pastel, soil and pigment) and wet (watercolour, ink, blending oils) media, trying to exploit their interactions and contradictions. His works are largely on paper although he finds any drawing surface potentially useful to work on - especially if it’s had another purpose. Jon encourages a collaborative approach and has fashioned lo-fi drawing devices that encourage participatory image making and shared experimentation - often with the presence of music or sound to act as a creative flux. He works with producers, musicians and composers as partners in image creation in live, performative settings.

Sarah Jane Richards

Sarah Jane Richards is a Welsh artist currently living on the Wirral Peninsula. She holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Painting, Sculpture, and Printmaking from Leeds Beckett University, with additional studies at the Cyprus School of Art and the Universitat de Belles Artes in Barcelona. Her artistic practice primarily encompasses painting, drawing, installations and curating, with a research focus on mental health and environmental issues. As a practising artist, her work is centred on capturing reflections and observations of the environment through mark-making techniques such as walking, meditating, and drawing. These activities inform her paintings, drawings, and installations, which are deeply connected to specific places and moments in time. Sarah Jane is particularly interested in embodied consciousness intertwined with the landscape, aiming to emphasize the physical and temporal dimensions of perception. By integrating walking and drawing, and creating drawing installations, her artworks serve as indices of these movements rather than simple naturalistic depictions. Sarah Janes recent studies explore how art serves as a powerful tool to raise awareness, foster emotional connections, and inspire action to address the climate change crisis and envision sustainable futures. She is particularly interested in nature connectedness, a psychological construct that extends beyond mere contact with nature to a profound sense of meaningful engagement with the natural world. In this area, she has been co-leader to a Heritage Lottery Funded commission with the Sefton Coast Landscape Partnership, creating a series of six sculptures at key points along the Sefton Coastal Path. Additionally, she was a core artist in the Back from the Brink programme, an ambitious nationwide partnership aimed at rescuing threatened species from extinction and promoting recovery through community arts events. Alongside her role teaching Fine Art BA Hons at Liverpool Hope University Sarah Jane works within the intersection of arts and health, embracing the philosophy of social prescribing, which acknowledges that many health conditions have broader social determinants beyond biomedical origins. She serves as a core artist for the award-winning Arts on Prescription program, Creative Alternatives, under The ALEF Trust. This program supports individuals suffering from anxiety, stress, and depression in the North West. Sarah Jane has been commissioned to develop and facilitate projects in hospitals emphasizing individual, community, environmental, positive societal change, and socio-structural factors within a transdisciplinary framework of wellbeing. As a curator Sarah Jane enjoys working with artists, bringing artists together, creating dialogue, sharing and promoting ideas around art and the making of art.

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© 2025 Drawing (Paper) Show 

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