Written by By Tatiana Benoit, CNN
Cerith Wyn Evans’s oeuvre is a lyrical map of the mind, a series of re-paintings of familiar street scenes reimagined as abstract, jagged patterns. It is also a return to past Tate Modern acquisitions, materials and subjects: the first time an artist’s residency with the museum will be included in the prize’s longlist, alongside essays, photographs and small ceramic pieces.
See below for a breakdown of the prize-winning nominees. A full list of the entries and all the shortlisted artists are at tumblr.com/news/2018/10/03/turner-prize-winners-2017-international-collection.
Eligibility
Winners of the Turner Prize are no longer invited to be on the official jury for the UK’s most prestigious art award. Instead, the artists involved submit a list of works for the shortlist, which is decided by a panel of judges. The jury then decides which four works from the shortlist will be included in the exhibition at Tate Britain’s new, £50m (about $73m) purpose-built home in Trafalgar Square.
Previous winners
The Turner Prize has been handed out by the Tate since 1984. Since 2012, it has been run by an outside body, the Tate Trust, overseen by the current creative director, Kristian Nyholm. The prize has gone to a number of artists in recent years: Chris Ofili won in 2004, with Richard Wright and Tony Cragg in 2005 and Martin Creed in 2008.
Wyn Evans with tessthis year’s Turner Prize.
The Turner Prize is not the only award that celebrates conceptual art. The Swiss-based Venice Biennale awards ten artists with an award of $600,000 (about £431,000) at its end. The biennale, one of the world’s largest art festivals, kicked off in August.
The Turner Prize and the Venice Biennale have, however, had their differences in the past: Wyn Evans and Martin Creed have both received negative feedback for comments they made about the biennale in 2012, when they were both on the shortlist. Meanwhile, Wangechi Mutu withdrew from the competition in 2014, citing poor representation by women.
Notable entrants and wins
Last year, three artists including Lynette Yiadom-Boakye won the prize. Siobhan Davies took first prize in 2014 and Gary Hume won in 2008. Since 1990, the Turner Prize has received plenty of high-profile runners-up: Monica Galetti and Douglas Gordon both received nods from the judges, but lost out to Chris Ofili. Some of the biggest winners include Angus Wilson (1986), Grayson Perry (2009) and Damien Hirst (2005).
Spectacular photos from the exhibition will be on display at the Turner Prize 2017/2018 exhibition at Tate Britain from October 2017.
For live updates, see @cnn.com/turnerprize.