Congratulations to Helen Marten winner of the prestigious Turner Prize for 2016. The award announced at a ceremony in London this evening is the most coveted prize given to a British artist, under the age of 50, having mounted one of the best exhibitions of the last 12 months. This year artists Anthea Hamilton, Michael Dean, Helen Marten and Josephine Pryde were the nominees shortlisted by a jury, consisting of Michelle Cotton, Director, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn; Tamsin Dillon, Curator; Beatrix Ruf, Director, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Simon Wallis, Director, The Hepworth Wakefield. The jury was chaired by Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain.
Marten creates installations made from found objects that tell a story which can be interpreted by the viewer. The artist has already won the new Hepworth Sculpture Prize as well as exhibited at the Venice Biennale and Serpentine Gallery.
The awards ceremony takes place every other year at Tate Britain, as it is now hosted biannually in different parts of the UK. Next year it will be in Hull as part of the City Of Culture programme. The prize is now broadcast live on the BBC after Channel 4 pulled the plug on the live event, as it no longer fits into their reality TV and talk/game show heavy programming. Last year the prize was hosted by Lauren Laverne who appeared to know very little about art or the prize. It was one of the most hilarious television faux pas since Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood hosted the Brit Awards.
Artlyst critic, Edward Lucie-Smith said of the prize; “Since its heyday in the 1990s, when it helped to establish the reputation of the last really significant art movement in Britain – or perhaps anywhere else – that of the so-called YBAs or Younger British Artists – the Turner Prize has been in decline. Perhaps its last significant outing was in 2007, nearly ten years ago, when it was won by Mark Wallinger. Since then, try to recall the names of the lucky laureates. Oh yes, in 2015 it was won by a community activist group called Assemble, full of good intentions but they don’t, as far as I can recall, actually describe themselves as artists.”
“The four sections, one for each Turner Prize finalist – Michael Dean, Anthea Hamilton, Helen Marten, Josephine Pryde – are in fact four different theaters. In each case, the individual spectator is an actor, entering into a relationship with the artist who has provided in the setting within which he or she now acts or reacts. In the good sense of the phrase “It makes you think, don’t it?” And it’s the kind of art that for the most part only works in public spaces. There is nothing much here that posh people can buy and squirrel away in customs-free zones in Switzerland and Luxembourg. A few bits of sculpture, perhaps, that would look pretty much orphaned without the context provided for them here;” ELS added.
Anthea Hamilton’s work combines surrealism, comedy and sexual imagery Hamilton has been included for her work that focuses on fetishism, while sculptor Dean was chosen for pieces made from salvaged materials.
Helen Marten’s practice “creates poetic, pictorial puzzles”, the Tate said Painter and sculptor Marten’s art is described as “slippery and elusive”
Josephine Pryde’s work shows a fascination with art and photography. Marten won the first Hepworth Prize for Sculpture recently and pledged to share the £30,000 award with her fellow nominees.
Michael Dean’s work is made from “aesthetically-overlooked materials” The jury is chaired by Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain. Last year’s prize was won by design collective Assemble for a regeneration scheme for derelict houses in Liverpool.