Dulwich Picture Gallery: Bicentenary Friends’ Exhibition

Dulwich Picture Gallery launches its Bicentenary Friends’ Exhibition featuring over 100 works by the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Launched in 2004, this will be the fourth in what has become an increasingly popular competition. As always the standard of work, including paintings, photographs, drawings and prints, is expected to be extremely high. All works will be on sale in the main Gallery exhibition spaces. Previous entrants have included local artist Audrey Hammond, who was interviewed in December by the BBC.

The exhibition serves as a very useful introduction to the gallery world and provides a taster for competing and exhibiting. Local artist Julia de Greff found the exhibition to be an invaluable launch pad for her career. One of her works was accepted into the 2006 Friends’ Show and the piece ended up winning the Deborah Roslund prize. Julia went on to have a successful solo exhibition at ArtDog and has been with that gallery ever since. She said, “I feel incredibly lucky to have had such a fantastic resource in Dulwich Picture Gallery so close by. The exhibition in 2006 felt like a great affirmation, which led on to other successes that have motivated me to pursue my art seriously.”

The judging panel of five will be chaired by Ian Dejardin, the Gallery’s Director, along with four other experts. This year it is comprised of Eileen Cooper RA, former Artist in Residence at Dulwich Picture Gallery; Rupert Maas, gallery owner, local resident and expert appraiser for Antiques Roadshow; Deborah Roslund, local resident and collector of modern art; Pippa Graber, local resident and owner of ArtDog, which mainly represents local artists and exhibits their work.

The judges will be looking for evidence of individual expression as well as quality of execution and will award prizes to individual works, including a People’s Prize for the most popular piece, which will be announced after the exhibition closes.

This is an opportunity for those in the local community who are Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery to have their work judged by a panel and then, if selected, to have it hung on the walls of Britain’s first purpose-built art gallery.
All the art is for sale with 30% going to the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery with prices varying from tens of pounds to thousands.

Ian Dejardin, Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery, said: “We all know that the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery are key supporters of everything we do here and what a pleasure it is to be able to showcase their remarkable artistic talent here in the Gallery. The standard is always remarkably high.”