Tate Britain announced today the four artists who have been shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2013. This year the exhibition will be held at Ebrington in Derry-Londonderry as part of the UK City of Culture 2013. The artists are (in alphabetical order): Laure Prouvost, Tino Sehgal, David Shrigley and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.
The Turner Prize is one of the art world’s most prestigious art accolades. It will be hosted outside Britain this year for the first time, in the UK Capital of Culture, Derry in Northern Ireland. The shortlist announcement will take place at Tate Britain Thursday 25 April. It is arguably the highlight of the contemporary art calendar and presents the very best of current British art by an artist under 50, in a free exhibition. This exhibition and competition gives the public a chance to discover what is new and exciting in art right now.
Laure Prouvost: For her new work Wantee commissioned with Grizedale Arts for inclusion in Schwitters in Britain at Tate Britain and for her two-part installation for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, resulting from a residency in Italy and presented in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery. Her unique approach to filmmaking, often situated within atmospheric installations, employs strong story telling, quick cuts, montage and deliberate misuse of language to create surprising and unpredictable work.
Tino Sehgal: For his pioneering projects This Variation at documenta (XIII) and These Associations at Tate Modern. Both structured and improvised, Seghal’s intimate works consist purely of live encounters between people and demonstrate a keen sensitivity to their institutional context. Through participatory means, they test the limits of artistic material and audience perception in a new and significant way.
David Shrigley: For his solo exhibition at Hayward Gallery David Shrigley: Brain Activity which offered a comprehensive overview and new perspectives on his work. Including not only his well-loved drawings but also photography, sculpture and film, the exhibition revealed his black humour, macabre intelligence and infinite jest.
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: For her exhibition Extracts and Verses at Chisenhale Gallery. Yiadom-Boakye’s intriguing paintings appear traditional but are in fact much more innovative. Her portraits of imaginary people use invented pre-histories and raise pertinent questions about how we read pictures in general, particularly with regard to black subjects.
The Turner Prize award is £40,000 with £25,000 going to the winner and £5,000 each for the other shortlisted artists. The Prize, established in 1984, is awarded to a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding 16 April 2013. It is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art and is widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe.
This year the exhibition will be on show in at Ebrington in Derry-Londonderry as part of the UK City of Culture 2013 (23 October 2013 -5 January 2014). The winner is announced at an awards ceremony on Monday 2 December 2013.
Founded in 1984 to celebrate new developments in contemporary art, the Turner Prize is awarded each year to a British artist under 50 for an outstanding exhibition or presentation of their work in the preceding 12 months. Artist nominations are invited every year and it is judged by an independent jury, they are: Annie Fletcher, Curator of Exhibitions, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven Susanne Gaensheimer, Director of Frankfurt’s Museum of Modern Art
Declan Long, writer and lecturer at National College of Art and Design, Dublin
Ralph Rugoff, Director of Hayward Gallery, London.
Photo: © P C Robinson Artlyst 2013