This year, the Turner Prize turns 40. First awarded in 1984, the award was founded by a group called the Patrons of New Art under the directorship of Alan Bowness. The aim was to encourage wider interest in contemporary art and establish an artistic equivalent to the Booker Prize. Awarded to a ‘British’ artist, either born in the country and working abroad or working primarily in the country, it focuses on recent developments in their practice, rather than lifetime achievement. To look back at the past four decades of winners is to see a list of some of the most influential figures in contemporary art – Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, Rachel Whiteread. Together, they define what it means to be a practitioner in the modern world. Each year, the shortlist is exhibited, alternating between London and elsewhere in the country, and this year’s offerings are based at the Tate Britain. But there is more than one opportunity to see these artists up close, and here are five opportunities former Turner Prize winners exhibiting their work today.
Tai Shani: The World to Me Was a Secret
The Cosmic House, London l Until 20 December
Tai Shani (b. 1976) uses performance, film, photography, sculptural installation and experimental texts to explore forgotten histories and stories. She was nominated for the Turner Prize for her participation in Still I Rise: Feminism, Gender and Resistance, an exhibition exploring the role that women have plated in the history of resistance movements and alternative forms of living. She won alongside her three fellow nominees – Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock and Oscar Murillo – after they jointly claimed that “the politics we deal with differ greatly, and for us it would be problematic if they were pitted against each other, with the implication that one was more important, significant or more worthy of attention than the others.” This exhibition is a dialogue between artist and The Cosmic house, drawing on the unique location. It centres the human figure as the main subject – playfully referencing classical mythologies.
Houghton Hall, Norfolk I Until 31 October
Sculptor Antony Gormley’s (b. 1950) work can be found right across the UK, from the Angel of the North in Gateshead to Another Place in Liverpool. Gormley is known for pieces that focus attention on the human body. His work in the 1980s saw him create a mould of his own body in plaster that he would then encase in lead. Of this work, the artist said: “I was trying to map out the phenomenology of the body and to find a new way of evoking it as being less a thing, more a place; a site of transformation, and an axis of physical and spatial experience.” His Field for the British Isles (1991), consisting of 35,000 individual terracotta figures between 8 and 26cm high, won the Turner Prize in 1994. His exploration of the body continues at Houghton Hall, in which 100 life-size sculptures are distributed across the park’s 300 acres. Some are buried up to the chest or knees, whilst others allow only the head to be visible.
Arken Museum of Modern Art, Denmark I Until 20 October
Anish Kapoor (b. 1954) creates installations on a colossal scale. His monumental sculptures speak to our senses and emotions, employing materials, shapes, surfaces and colours to turn the world upside down and encourage viewers to see things from a different perspective. His work ranges from giant trains made of red wax to giant mirrored forms like Sky Mirror (2001) and Cloud Gate (2004-2006) that reflect the environment as it moves and shifts. He won the Turner Prize in 1991. In his exhibition at Arken Museum of Modern Art, visitors are given the opportunity to explore Kapoor’s unique universe which explores central themes of absence and void. A selection of his most significant artworks, created over a more than 40-year career. It deals with the paradoxical aspect of his art: we feel the effects of the works on our bodies, but there is more at stake that we can immediately see with the naked eye.
Dia Chelsea, New York I From 20 September
For more than 30 years, artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen (b. 1969) has continually investigated the possibilities inherent in film – as a material, a documentary tool, and a story telling movement. It has resulted in work that is formally inventive and politically pointed. He uses projected light and sound, much like a sculptor or a painter, to extend beyond the conventional frame of cinema. His work won him the Turner Prize in 1999. At Dia Chelsea, new pieces are presented alongside a two-channel video, Sunshine State (2022), which is displayed on two large screens, encouraging viewers to watch from varying vantage points. It begins with a burning sun, unfurling with clips from the musical drama The Jazz Singer (1927), the first ‘talkie’ in the history of cinema. In a voiceover, McQueen recounts a poignant story that his late father relayed on his deathbed about a personal experience of violent racism in Florida.
Tate Britain, London I From 25 September
Ahead of the announcement of the 40th Turner Prize winner, Tate Britain will host the work of four nominees – Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur and Delaine Le Bas. Abad’s drawings, etchings and sculptures depict artifacts from Oxford museums, highlighting their overlooked histories and connections to everyday household items. Johnson’s striking figurative portraits of Black woman and men, examining their marginaisation in Western art history, often through portrayals of family and friends. Meanwhile, Kaur and Le Bas transform their environments using sound compositions and immersive environments filled with painted fabrics and theatrical costumes respectively. The show is an opportunity to see the work of those driving the creative industries and catch a glimpse of this year’s winner.
The winner of the Turner Prize 2024 will be announced 3 December 2024: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/turner-prize-2024
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
Tai Shani, The World to Me Was a Secret: Caesious, Zinnober, Celadon, and Virescent, 2024, installation view. Photo by Thierry Bal.
Antony Gormley, Time Horizon, 2006, cast iron,100 elements, each 189×53×29 cm. Installation Houghton Hall, Norfolk, 2024. Photographed by Pete Huggins.
Installation view of Jasleen Kaur,Alter Altarat Tramway,Glasgow 2023. Courtesy of Tramway and Glasgow Life.Photo: Keith Hunter.
Anish Kapoor, Destierro, 2017. Photo by David Stjernholm.
