Now open at Tate Britain is an exhibition of work by the four artists shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize: Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur and Delaine Le Bas.
One of the world’s best-known prizes for the visual arts, the Turner Prize aims to promote public debate around new developments in contemporary British art. Established in 1984, the prize is named after the radical painter JMW Turner (1775-1851) and is awarded each year to a British artist for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work.
2024 is the 40th anniversary of the prestigious prize, and this year also marks its return to Tate Britain for the first time in six years. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony at Tate Britain on 3 December 2024.
The shortlisted artists are:
Pio Abad
Nominated for his solo exhibition To Those Sitting in Darkness at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Abad’s work considers cultural loss and colonial histories, often reflecting on his upbringing in the Philippines. His exhibition includes drawing, etchings and sculptures which depict, juxtapose and transform artefacts from Oxford museums, highlighting their overlooked histories and drawing parallels with familiar household 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.
Claudette Johnson
Nominated for her solo exhibition Presence at The Courtauld Gallery, London, and Drawn Out at Ortuzar Projects, New York, Johnson is noted for her figurative portraits of Black women and men in a combination of pastels, gouache and watercolour. Countering the marginalisation of Black people in Western art history, Johnson shifts perspectives and invests her portraits of family and friends with a palpable sense of presence. 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
Nominated for her solo exhibition Alter Altar at Tramway, Glasgow exploring cultural inheritance, solidarity and autobiography, Kaur created sculptures from everyday objects, each animated through an immersive sound composition, giving them an uncanny illusion of life. Objects including family photos, an Axminster carpet, a vintage Ford Escort covered in a giant doily, Irn-Bru and kinetic hand bells were orchestrated to convey the artist’s upbringing in Glasgow’s Sikh community. The jury praised the artist’s evocative combination of sound and sculpture to address specifics of family memory and community struggle.
Delaine Le Bas
Nominated for her presentation Incipit Vita Nova. Here Begins The New Life/A New Life Is Beginning at Secession, Vienna, Le Bas transformed the gallery into an immersive performative environment hung with painted fabrics and filled with theatrical costumes and sculptures. Drawing on the rich cultural history of the Roma people and her interest in mythologies, the artist addressed themes of death, loss and renewal, inspired by the passing of her grandmother. 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.
Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain and chair of the Turner Prize jury said: “All four artists make work that is full of life. They show how contemporary art can fascinate, surprise and move us, and how it can speak powerfully of complex identities and memories, often through the subtlest of details. In the Turner Prize’s 40th year, this shortlist proves that British artistic talent is as rich and vibrant as ever.”
The winner will be announced at an award ceremony at Tate Britain on 3 December 2024.
For further information: tate.org.uk
Image: Installation view of Claudette Johnson, Presence, at The Courtauld Gallery, 2023. Courtesy the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London © The Courtauld. Photo: David Bebber
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