Announced this morning at the Tate Britain in London, Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur and Delaine Le Bas have been nominated for the 2024 Turner Prize.
It’s the 40th anniversary of the prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, that was established in 1984 and has recognised some of the UK’s most significant artists, including Damien Hirst, Steve McQueen, and Anish Kapoor.
The winner of the prize will be announced on 3 December 2024 at the Tate Britain, the first time the ceremony has returned to its usual home in six years.
Before that, works from the nominated artists will be displayed at the gallery from 25 September 2024 to 16 February 2025.
Awarded to the artist for an outstanding exhibition or presentation of their work, the top prize is £25,000 (€29,000) with each of the nominated artists receiving a £10,000 (€11,600) prize.
Who are the nominees?
Pio Abad – To Those Sitting in Darkness
Filipino artist Pio Abad is known for the way his artistic practice uses objects, textiles, painting and drawing to reflect on his cultural upbringing. Abad first trained in art in Manila, before moving to the UK where he gained degrees in Glasgow and London and has since exhibited his works worldwide.
Abad’s solo exhibition ‘To Those Sitting in Darkness’ that was held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford drew from his mixed-media practice by repurposing items within the Ashmolean’s collection to highlight overlooked histories and their resemblance to ordinary items.
“The jury commended the precision and elegance with which Abad combines research with new artistic work to ask questions of museums. They also remarked on both the sensitivity and clarity with which he brings history into the present,” the Turner Prize press release noted.
Claudette Johnson – Presence; Drawn Out
Claudette Johnson is one of the founding members of the BLK Art Group, a collective of British African-Caribbean visual artists formed in the early 1980s. She is known for her large-scale portraits of Black women and men using pastels, gouache and watercolour.
Her nominated solo exhibitions ‘Presence’ at the Courtauld Gallery in London and ‘Drawn Out’ at Ortuzar Projects in New York provided an overview of Johnson’s illustrious career in the representation of Black people in the Western art canon through portraits of her family and friends.
“In a year that the jury felt represented a milestone in her practice, they were struck by Johnson’s sensitive and dramatic use of line, colour, space and scale to express empathy and intimacy with her subjects.”
Jasleen Kaur – Alter Altar
Born in Glasgow in 1986, Kaur has quickly established herself as a leading young British artist through exhibitions across the country as well as co-authoring the 2019 book ‘Be Like Teflon’, a collection of conversations between women of Indian heritage living in the UK.
Her exhibition ‘Alter Altar’ was held at Tramway, not far from her home in Glasgow. By personifying everyday objects through sound installations, Kaur explored her cultural heritage via sculptures formed out of family photos, an Axminster carpet, a vintage Ford Escort covered in a giant doily, Irn-Bru and kinetic hand bells.
“The jury praised the artist’s evocative combination of sound and sculpture to address specifics of family memory and community struggle.”
Delaine Le Bas – Incipit Vita Nova. Here Begins The New Life/A New Life Is Beginning
The British artis Delaine Le Bas has worked extensively to address concepts of nationhood and belonging through the lens of her Romany background in her work. Her work was included in the first Roma Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale.
Le Bas’s presentation ‘Incipit Vita Nova. Here Begins The New Life/A New Life Is Beginning’ at Secession in Vienna transformed the gallery to create an immersive environment that brought visual, performance and literary practices to engage with her interest in Roma history, mythology and the death of her grandmother, while also subverting her own aesthetic through exploring the struggles of stereotypical limitations when using textiles like fabrics to discuss her culture.
“Noting Le Bas’s boldness at this moment in her practice, the jury were impressed by the energy and immediacy present in this exhibition, and its powerful expression of making art in a time of chaos.”
The winner of the Turner Prize will be announced on 3 December 2024.
