What you've all been waiting for.... the judge of the 2022 JADA Suzanne Cotter, Director of the MCA, Sydney has selected the winner, Catherine O'Donnell for her work titled Glenbrook Window #1,2021, charcoal on paper. This biennial drawing prize seeks to encourage and promote innovation and excellence in Australian drawing practice. ‘The 2022 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (JADA) celebrates Australian contemporary drawing at its finest. This year the tradition of excellence continues with 56 artists selected from 641 entries for the exhibition, which will continue its touring legacy travelling to communities across the east coast of Australia promoting contemporary drawing to regional audiences throughout 2023 and 2024. The biennial JADA is the Grafton Regional Gallery’s flagship art prize generously sponsored by Friends of Grafton Gallery (FoGG). This year’s JADA celebrates the diversity of contemporary drawing with many of the finalists challenging the notion of traditional drawing, while others provide a new perspective and/ or reinvigorate those traditions in their work. The exhibition encapsulates the extraordinary spectrum of current drawing practice, from the expressive and abstract, to hyperrealism, and works that evoke a poetic and emotional response to our environment, the human condition, and current global events. Image: Catherine O'Donnell, Glenbrook Window #1, 2021, charcoal on paper, 75 x 46 cm, (unframed). Courtesy of the Artist and Dominik Mersch Gallery.