The Tate has announced the four artists who have been shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2008. The artists are Runa Islam, Mark Leckey, Goshka Macuga and Cathy Wilkes. The Turner Prize returns to Tate Britain after it launched Liverpool's Capital of Culture at Tate Liverpool in 2007.
Runa Islam
For her solo exhibition Centre of Gravity at Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen and National Museum of Art, Oslo and the presentation of her work at Venice Biennale 2007 for the continuing development of a unique visual language in her films. Islam creates closely choreographed films with open ended narratives that are analytical and emotionally charged.
Mark Leckey
Mark Leckey has been nominated for his solo exhibitions Industrial Light & Magic at Le Consortium, Dijon, and Resident at Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, which combine sculpture, film, sound and performance. With wit and originality, Leckey continues to find new genres through which to communicate his fascination with contemporary culture.
Goshka Macuga
For her solo exhibition 'Objects in Relation, Art Now' at Tate Britain and her contribution to the 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art for her carefully staged, mixed-media installations in which she draws on the conventions of the historical archive and exhibition making. Enacting a form of cultural archaeology, Macuga enlists the collaboration of artists past and present in dramatic environments that suggest new narratives and associations.
Cathy Wilkes
For her solo exhibition at Milton Keynes Gallery, that showed her personal approach to figurative sculpture. Through rigorous, highly charged arrangements of commonplace objects and materials, Wilkes has developed an articulate and eloquent vocabulary that touches on issues of femininity and sexuality.
The Turner Prize award is £40,000 with £25,000 going to the winner and £5,000 each for the other shortlisted artists. The Prize, established in 1984, is awarded to a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding 6 May 2008. It is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art and is widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe.
Work by the shortlisted artists will be shown in an exhibition at Tate Britain opening on 30 September 2008. The winner will be announced at Tate Britain on 1 December 2008 during a live broadcast by Channel 4.
The members of the Turner Prize 2008 jury are:
David Adjaye, architect and Director, Adjaye Associates
Daniel Birnbaum, Director, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt
Suzanne Cotter, Deputy Director and Senior Curator, Modern Art Oxford
Jennifer Higgie, Editor, Frieze
Stephen Deuchar, Director, Tate Britain and Chair of the Jury
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