Davidson National Print and Drawing Competition

A large, rectangular monochrome artwork composed of heavily creased paper sheets arranged in a grid pattern. The surface is predominantly dark charcoal grey or black with visible grid lines and diagonal folds. A single horizontal band of lighter, off-white or silver paper sheets extends across the middle right portion of the composition.

50 Years Later

Davidson National Print and Drawing Competition

Van Every Gallery
On View: August 24, 2026— September 27, 2026
Opening Reception: September 17, 2026, 6:00 pm— 7:30 pm

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Between 1972 and 1976, the Davidson National Print and Drawing Competition brought some of the most compelling contemporary works on paper to Davidson College. Conceived of by Herb Jackson ’67 in the early days of his more than forty-year teaching career at Davidson, the exhibition invited leading voices in the art world—including Marcia Tucker and Clement Greenberg—to serve as jurors. Individual artists, as well as printmaking studios from across the country, responded by shipping original drawings and prints to Davidson for consideration. Although the competition ended in 1976, it left an indelible mark on both the College and its permanent collection, adding nearly fifty significant works over its five-year run.

50 Years Later: Davidson National Print and Drawing Competition celebrates the spirit of that original exhibition while reimagining it for today. Similar to previous iterations, the submissions represented a survey of contemporary drawing and printmaking from across the United States. We also invited distinguished curators, though this time working together as a panel. Caitlin Haskell (Davidson College Class of 2000), Gary C. and Frances Comer Senior Curator in Modern and Contemporary Art and Director of Ray Johnson Collections and Research at the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Maria Elena Ortiz, Curator, at The Modern in Fort Worth, TX; and TK Smith, Curator, Writer, Cultural Historian based in Atlanta, GA, reviewed over 230 submissions. In previous Davidson Nationals, more than 100 artists presented one work each. This time we chose instead to focus the exhibition on fewer artists, allowing each to be represented in greater depth. The panelists selected nine artists, who then worked with our gallery director/curator to select works—or, in many cases, groups of works—for display. Representing some of the many important conversations shaping the field today, we invite you to engage more deeply with the artists’ practices.

Exhibiting Artists:
Paul Stephen Benjamin – Yoonhee Choi – Jillian Conrad – Maja Godlewska – María Korol – Ambrin Ling – Jenene Nagy – Adrian Rhodes – Sergio Suárez

This exhibition is made possible through the support of the Herb Jackson and Laura Grosch Gallery Endowment and Davidson College Friends of the Arts

 

A mixed-media artwork combining pink, purple, and blue watercolor washes with ink drawings and paper collage. At the top, large dark wings span across the sky above a silhouette of figures hiking a mountain. The lower sections contain separate visuals: a seated person in a coat holding a staff, a cluster of green trees, a dark ribbed shape in swirling water, a multi-masted sailing ship, and bright yellow patterned paper cutouts.
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A high-contrast black-and-white ink drawing of an indoor scene with a wooden floorboard pattern. It features several stylized human and animal-hybrid figures, including a crouching person with long dark hair, another person with lighter hair holding their head, a large dark four-legged animal with a long tail, a bird flying overhead, and a figure holding a snake in the background.
A monochrome black-and-white print or drawing featuring a large, stippled human hand resting horizontally across the center. Fine white streams appear to pour from the hand's palm down into a dense cluster of thin, crisscrossed lines resembling straw or pine needles. The background is dark with scattered white dots and wavy lines indicating a night sky and water.
A monochrome black-and-white artwork on a vertical panel with a semi-circular arched top. The image features multiple textured, stippled human figures in an outdoor setting at night. Several figures hold or feature circular, globe-like orbs near their heads. In the background, a volcano-shaped mound sits beneath a dark, star-speckled sky, with thin white lines arcing across the scene.
A large, rectangular monochrome artwork composed of heavily creased paper sheets arranged in a grid pattern. The surface is predominantly dark charcoal grey or black with visible grid lines and diagonal folds. A single horizontal band of lighter, off-white or silver paper sheets extends across the middle right portion of the composition.

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