Tate Britain has announced the nominees for the Turner Prize 2024, marking its 40th year of celebration: Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur, and Delaine Le Bas. Their artworks will be showcased at Tate Britain this fall, leading up to the award ceremony in December.
This year’s Turner Prize shortlist diverges from past criticism by featuring artists with substantial recognition. Pio Abad delves into the Marcos dictatorship’s impact, Claudette Johnson focuses on feminist figurative art, Jasleen Kaur explores the UK’s Sikh diaspora through sound and sculpture, and Delaine Le Bas addresses nationhood and belonging with her embroidery and painting.
Pio Abad is nominated for his 2023 solo exhibition, To Those Sitting in Darkness, held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The exhibition delved into the consequences of colonialism, utilizing drawing, etchings, and sculptures alongside artifacts from Oxford museums to highlight historical parallels and challenge traditional museum exhibition models.
Claudette Johnson is recognized for her exhibitions Presence at the Courtauld Gallery in London and Drawn Out at Ortuzar Projects in New York. She reinvents art historical tropes within lively portraits of Black women, children, and men, creating intimate encounters with the viewer imbued with conviviality and vulnerability.
Jasleen Kaur is recognized for her talent in creating evocative assemblages from found objects, reminiscent of last year’s winner, Jesse Darling. Her nomination is for the installation “Alter Altar” at Tramway in Glasgow, which incorporates everyday items like a can of Irn-Bru or an old Ford Escort that evoke specific times and places.
Delaine Le Bas, born in Worthing in 1965, has been nominated for her exhibition, Here Begins the New Life/A New Life is Beginning at Secession in Vienna, that combines expressive sculpture and costume, intertwining universal myth and personal histories inspired by the artist’s grandmother. The judges admired the confidence of the exhibition, noting it as a significant development in Le Bas’s practice, showcasing her bold and distinctive visual language.
The director of Tate Britain and chairman of the Turner Prize jury, Alex Farquharson praised all four artists for their vibrant and evocative work, noting their ability to captivate, astonish, and emotionally resonate with audiences while addressing intricate themes of identity and memory through subtle nuances in their art.
The Turner Prize, limited to UK-based artists, has a history of showcasing influential figures in contemporary art, including Lubaina Himid, Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, Steve McQueen, and Wolfgang Tillmans. Recent editions have seen unconventional approaches: in 2019, nominees divided the cash prize instead of having a single winner; in 2020, the award was canceled, with grants being distributed instead; and in 2021, only collectives were nominated, deviating from the traditional individual artist nominations.
