Tate has announced the contenders for this year’s Turner Prize, the contemporary art award set up in 1984 that carries a £25,000 prize. The selected artists, who are chosen with respect to the last 12 months of their production, are…
Runa Islam, for her solo exhibition “Center of Gravity” at Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen and the National Museum of Art, Oslo. Furthermore for her presentation at the Venice Biennial 2007. She has become known for her emotionally charged and beautifully realized films, which often present open narratives. Her work Be the First To See What you See as you See (2004) shows a woman wandering around a gallery space of fragile porcelain pieces.
Cathy Wilkes is nominated for her solo exhibition at Milton Keynes Gallery, which includes recent and new work. With the use of mannequins, Wilkes has become known for creating personalized assemblages, often with autobiographical and feminist threads, that form evolving environments.
Goshka Macuga is nominated for her solo exhibition “Objects in Relation” at Tate Britain and for her contribution to the 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art. Macuga works closely with the idea of the historical archive in her mixed-media installations. Her environments often recall art historical figures, who are mixed by Macuga with those of the present, to provoke dramatic new narratives.
Mark Leckey represents the only male in the competition. His solo exhibitions “Industrial Light & Magic” at Le Consortium, Dijon, and “Resident” at Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, have caught the eye recently. Leckey sets about his production, which combines sculpture, film, sound and performance, with wit and originality. Among the interests that can be located in his work are TV broadcasting and film production, through to… Felix the Cat.
Work by the finalists will be exhibited at Tate Britain in London, beginning September 30. The competition returns to London having been held last year at Tate Liverpool. The Jury includes David Adjaye, director of Adjaye Associates; Daniel Birnbaum, director of Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste; Suzanne Cotter, senior curator of Modern Art Oxford; Jennifer Higgie, editor of Frieze magazine and Stephen Deuchar, the director of Tate Britain. The winner will be announced on December 1.