On paper: OVR including a selection of works on paper by gallery artists and collaborators

Press Release

Drawing is one of the oldest existing forms of human expression. We all draw. It is one of the most efficient systems of visual communication being a vehicle of the inner thoughts through a wide range of styles and statements.

This exhibition isn't limited to focusing on drawing as a specific medium but rather as a way artists express themselves through it, underlying its significance, richness, and versatility. Including a selection of works by gallery artists and collaborators, we also seek to acknowledge a certain nostalgia in the era of digitalization.

Drawing has been present throughout many historical periods, although traditionally perceived as playing a lesser role in visual art. Its forms started to diversify in the nineteenth century, with the development of technical drawing in industries like engineering and architecture. Later, industrial and technological progress prompted the flourishing of editorial illustration, cartooning, or animation, among others.

Artists have continued to explore the numerous possibilities of what drawing can mean and be – radically redefining the medium. Most recently, since 2005, drawing has been regaining a political urgency according to C. Rattemeyer, former associate curator of drawings at MoMA, as the “dichotomy of Western normalcy and non-Western exception in art history, has unfolded into a more global dialogue.” Drawing has established itself within the establishment, serving as much as a tool as the desired creation.

On paper on view through May 2, reveals the endless possibilities that drawing offers artists from any background and highlights the energy of contemporary drawing.