Drawing Research Forum - Autumn 2020 Session

This online session of presentations and discussions, selected from an open call, examines recent research and critical issues around contemporary drawing. The session will run from 2pm to 3.30pm GMT. 

This session of the Drawing Research Forum will feature presentations and a plenary discussion with researchers examining diverse themes, and utilising and developing current discourse around contemporary drawing. The Drawing Research Forum provides a space for knowledge exchange between disciplines, encourages cross-fertilization of ideas and methodology, and fosters collaborations between artists and researchers. 

Presentations include:

• Martin Morris and Josh Armitage - The Grey Space in the Middle: Using Drawing to Meet the Object Half Way
• Hondartza Fraga - Drawing Saturn Beyond the Cassini Raw Images: Phenomenal Melancholy
• Christian Newby - Drawing with Carpet: Using an Industrial Tufting-Gun as an Experimental Tool for Mark-Making

View full programme here

Hondartza Fraga is a visual artist living in Leeds. She is currently studying a Practice-led PhD at the School of Design at the University of Leeds funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council with an award from the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities. Her research explores the relationship between art and scientific visualisations of remote places. She recently exhibited in 'Drawn to Investigate' and presented in the accompanying symposium 'Drawing Conversations 3: Drawing Talking to the Sciences' at The Ruskin, Lancaster University in January 2020. Her drawing work will be included in Phaidon’s Vitamin D3, to be published in January 2021. 

Martin Morris MA (RCA) is an educator whose practice is focused on drawing and communicating processes in drawing. He has taught across BA and MA education including the RCA, NFTS, Falmouth, Farnham, City & Guilds, Oxford Ruskin and Kingston. In industry he teaches for Colab and creative agency Ogilvy & Mather in Europe, Brazil and the U.S.A.  He currently holds the position of Senior Lecturer and Module Leader at Kingston School of Art on Illustration Animation BA (Hons). Martin had his first academic paper published in 2019 and recently he received recognition as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and the Kingston University Academic Impact Award (AIA) for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching and Learning.   

Joshua Armitage MA (RCA) is an artist and educator. His work primarily revolves around drawing and painting. After receiving a Masters in Animation from the Royal College of Art he developed a successful painting practice concerned with the intersections of observation, memory and feeling. His most recent show was with LULU gallery, Mexico City and hosted by Sunday Painter Gallery, London, as part of Condo 2020. His paintings are held in private collections internationally. He is a visiting lecturer in Drawing at Kingston School of Art, the University of Creative Arts and Goldsmiths and has run classes at the NFTS and the Royal Academy. His teaching practice uses discoveries made in his art practice as the foundation of his classes aimed at increasing confidence in self expression, particularly through methods of drawing. He lives and works in London.

Christian Newby is an artist and PhD-candidate at Kingston University London making experimental textile drawings with electric carpet-tufting guns. His research examines how the use of applied art and handicraft techniques in the production of artworks can focus a spotlight on and put forward new ways of understanding how nodes of instability and conditionality, within the definition of craft, offer it as a crucial social tool for understanding the ever-changing propositions of material culture. Exhibitions and residencies include ‘Placement does not explain, but cultivates a September garden’ (with collective, We Are Publication) at Camden Art Centre; ‘Brick-Wall-SpiderWeb-Post-It-Note’ at Beers London; the Academy of Visual Arts, HKBU, Hong Kong; ‘Le Club des Sous l’Eau at Palais Tokyo; and inclusion in ‘100 Sculptors of Tomorrow’, Thames & Hudson, 2019.