Drawing Room Biennial Fundraiser Exhibition

Grayson Perry's Chapel de St Claire is one of more than 200 drawings being auctioned by the not-for-profit space at a starting price of £250. Photograph: Grayson Perry/Drawing Room

What happens when you ask an artist to produce a piece of work within a clear boundary? asks Alex Newman. What if that boundary was a piece of A4, sent to an artist from any discipline, who is then asked to produce an original piece?

A4 may not be a medium many of the 200 artists exhibiting at the Drawing Room’s fifth Biennial Fundraiser are used to, but that is a large part of the intrigue for this increasingly popular auction in the art world’s (two year) calendar. Works exhibited include many by those who draw professionally and some by people like film-maker John Smith, who hasn’t drawn in decades.

The event is also firmly aimed at collectors, who are encouraged to “pick up a unique work of art that represents outstanding value for money.”

Bidding for each drawing begins at £250, and culminates on 18 May in a silent auction. The collection includes works by Turner Prize-winning artists such as Richard Long and Mark Wallinger, and Hackney-based artists like Simon Callery, Alison Wilding and David Austen.

The Drawing Room has been tucked behind a colossal iron gate on Laburnum Street’s Tannery Arts Studios since 2003. It describes itself as Europe’s only public non-profit gallery dedicated to the investigation and presentation of international contemporary drawing, and the continuing success of the fundraiser is an endorsement from artists and collectors alike at the special role this gallery plays.

When not holding fundraisers, it showcases new work by national and international artists, learning projects, publications and touring shows. It also recently became a recipient of first time core funding from the Arts Council, at a time when arts organisations throughout the country are seeing massive cuts.

It is the uniqueness of a focus on drawing that gives the gallery such appeal, says Director Mary Doyle: “The calibre of the exhibitions we are now able to host have a national and international focus and profile, and so it is in recognition of what we do.”

Speaking about the exhibition itself, she said: “For some it’s a challenge, for others it’s a starting point to begin a new thread in an artist’s work. The collection is a good opportunity for some people to start to collect, but it’s also an exhibition with a very diverse range of work with differing approaches to drawing.”

Visitors to the gallery will notice the huge range of interpretation of the drawing brief. Doyle explained: “Within our program we are not just looking at drawing in the traditional sense of paper on pencil, its really about exploring what drawing is in its broadest sense, and it’s really about how artists look at drawing. We haven’t got a prescriptive sense of what a drawing is.”

The exhibition is open to the public Tues – Sun 12-6pm until 18 May. To bid or find out more about the gallery visit the Drawing Room.