Hurvin Anderson, Andrea Büttner, Lubaina Himid, and Rosalind Nashashibi have been shortlisted for the 2017 Turner Prize.
In March Tate announced that the prize was dropping its under-fifty age limit – qualifying Anderson and Himid for what is the UK’s most significant art award. Originally established in 1984 to honour a memorable presentation of work by a British or UK-based artist in the past year, the Turner Prize’s age limit was introduced in 1991 to avoid it becoming a recognition of ‘lifetime achievement’. However, Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson, who chairs the prize, reasoned that ‘now that its reputation is so firmly established, we want to acknowledge the fact that artists can experience a breakthrough in their work at any age.’
Anderson was tipped for his solo exhibitions Dub Versions at New Art Exchange in Nottingham and Backdrop at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Canada; Büttner for her solo exhibitions Gesamtzusammenhang at Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen in Switzerland, and at David Kordansky in Los Angeles; Himid for solo exhibitions Invisible Strategies at Modern Art Oxford and Navigation Charts at Spike Island in Bristol, as well as her participation in group exhibition The Place is Here at Nottingham Contemporary; Nashashibi for her solo exhibition On This Island at The University Art Galleries at UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts in California, and her participation in Documenta 14.
This year’s shortlist was drawn up by Martin Herbert, associate editor at ArtReview, Dan Fox, co-editor at Frieze; Mason Leaver-Yap, Walker Art Center’s Bentson Scholar of Moving Image in Minneapolis and director of LUX; and Emily Pethick, director, The Showroom, London. Each artist will receive £5,000, with the eventual winner, chosen by the same jury and announced 5 December, receiving a further £25,000. An exhibition of work by the four will be on show at Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, opening 26 September (continuing the Tate’s recent policy of alternating the prize’s venue annually between Tate Britain in London and a regional institution).
2 May 2017
