Turner Prize 2020 bursary winners announced

Ten artists have been selected to win this year's historic Turner Bursaries

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Still from between a whisper and a cry, Alberta Whittle, 2019
Still from between a whisper and a cry, Alberta Whittle, 2019
(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist)

It was announced last month (May 2020) that this year's Turner Prize would be staged differently, owing to the difficulties of staging the traditional nominees exhibition during the pandemic. Instead, it was decided that the £100,000 grant would be shared between ten recipients, as a show of support for British artists during these unprecedented times.

Today, the ten Turner Prize winning artists have been announced. They are: Arika, Liz Johnson Artur, Oreet Ashery, Shawanda Corbett, Jamie Crewe, Sean Edwards, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Ima-Abasi Okon, Imran Perretta and Alberta Whittle. ‘They represent the many exciting and interdisciplinary ways that artists work today,' says director of Tate Britain Alex Farquharson, referring to the bursaries as ‘a vote of confidence in that work and offer some much-deserved support in challenging times'.

The selected artist span disciplines, from ceramics (Oxford's Shawanda Corbett) to moving image (London's Oreet Ashery), to political arts organisation (Edinburgh's Arika). Liz Johnson Artur, Ghanaian-Russian photographer based in London, recently shot an exciting series for Wallpaper*, which will be featured in our upcoming September 2020 Issue, and digitally in August.

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The collective voice of the 2019 Turner Prize winners

The decision to split the award follows on from last year's attention-grabbing decision, where the four nominees (Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock, Oscar Murillo, and Tai Shani) came together to request that the jury consider awarding the Prize to them as a collective – a request the judges agreed to unanimously.

This year, the judging panel met virtually, chaired by Farquharson. Richard Birkett, curator at the Institute of Contemporary Arts; Sarah Munro, director of BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art; Duro Olowu, designer and curator; and Fatoş Üstek, director of Liverpool Biennial, spent 12 months visiting hundreds of exhibitions in preparation for selecting the nominees. Together, they chose the winning artists from this pool, for their significant contributions to new developments in British contemporary art.

Installation view, Liz Johnson Artur

Installation view of Liz Johnson Artur: 'If you know the beginning, the end is no trouble', at the South London Gallery, 2019. 

(Image credit: Photography: Andy Stagg)

Ima Abasi Okon at Chisenhale Gallery

Ima Abasi Okon at Chisenhale Gallery. 

(Image credit: Photography: Andy Keate)

Oreet Ashery Wellcome 'Misbehaving Bodies: Jo Spence and Oreet Ashery'

Revisiting Genesis, 2016, at 'Misbehaving Bodies: Jo Spence and Oreet Ashery' at the Wellcome Collection, London, 2019. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist and the Wellcome Collection)

Sidsel Meineche Hansen, End-Used City, 2019. Installation view, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Welcome to End- Used City, Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2019

End-Used City, by Sidsel Meineche Hansen, 2019. Installation view at Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2019. 

(Image credit: Photography: Andy Keate)

INFORMATION

tate.org.uk/art/turner-prize

Elly Parsons

Elly Parsons is the Digital Editor of Wallpaper*, where she oversees Wallpaper.com and its social platforms. She has been with the brand since 2015 in various roles, spending time as digital writer – specialising in art, technology and contemporary culture – and as deputy digital editor. She was shortlisted for a PPA Award in 2017, has written extensively for many publications, and has contributed to three books. She is a guest lecturer in digital journalism at Goldsmiths University, London, where she also holds a masters degree in creative writing. Now, her main areas of expertise include content strategy, audience engagement, and social media.