A stunning exhibition of the top 50 entries from a prestigious national drawing competition will open at the USC Gallery at 6.30pm on Thursday 14 May.

The 2014 JADA: Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award Exhibition is a Grafton Regional Gallery touring initiative, which promotes excellence in Australian contemporary drawing.

It will be officially opened at USC by Grafton Regional Gallery Director Jude McBean and feature the winning entry, ‘Keys Bridge in Flood’, by Mullumbimby artist Emma Walker (pictured right).

Ms Walker, who received the major prize of $20,000, said her winning work “was created in a frustrated moment, commencing with pushing and applying varied drawing mediums onto a prepared surface”.

USC Gallery Curator Dawn Oelrich said the exhibition would give visitors a look at what Australia’s leading artists were doing in drawing and mark-making.

“As well as drawings by nationally recognised artists, Wendy Sharpe and Stephen Killick, there are some terrific local artists represented,” she said.

“Redcliffe’s John Robinson’s unusual ‘What boys will be’ is included, along with Gympie’s Kym Barrett’s beautiful artist book ‘Memoirs of a Lost Landscape’.

“JADA is always popular because it presents the best of the best drawing in Australia, with the exhibition comprising 50 excellent works across a variety of mediums.”

The Grafton Regional Gallery maintains one of Australia’s finest collections of drawings, with the Friends of Grafton Gallery providing the $20,000 major prize for JADA every second year.

The exhibition will continue at the USC Gallery until Saturday 4 July. Pictured (right) is Christopher Orchard's 'Floatation Device'.

The gallery is located at the University campus on Sippy Downs Drive, Sippy Downs. It is open free to the public from 10am to 4pm Monday to Saturday and closed Sundays and public holidays.

— Terry Walsh