GATESHEAD, United Kingdom – The globally influential Turner Prize for art, sponsored by Nokia, was tonight won by Scottish sculptor Martin Boyce.
The 43-year-old bookmakers’ favourite collected a £25,000-cheque from celebrity photographer Mario Testino at the ceremony in the Baltic Gallery here in the north-east of England.
A Turner Prize jury of five selected Boyce ahead of fellow nominees George Shaw, Karla Black and Hilary Lloyd.
Boyce, 43, left Glasgow School of Art with an MA in 1997. His work is influenced by the Modernist school and he reworks many of its themes, placing them in a contemporary context.
The Prize, established in 1984, is awarded to a British artist under fifty for work in the year leading up to April 4 2011. But it earns global recognition for winners.
A total prize fund of £40,000 is divided between the shortlisted artists with £25,000 going to the winner and £5,000 to each of the following three runners up.
Landscape painter George Shaw was born in Coventry in 1966 and received an MA from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1998. Depicting the bleak backdrop to his adolescent life, his work is set close to his childhood home and rendered with modelling paint.
Glasgow School of Art graduate Karla Black, 38, was born in Alexandria, Scotland. She integrates diverse everyday substances – from lipstick to topsoil – with traditional art materials, to make large ephemeral sculptures in temporary spaces.
Hilary Lloyd, 46, from Halifax, Yorkshire, graduated from Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic in 1987. She uses audio-visual equipment as part of her sculptures which are installations using moving images on video, film and slide projections.
Previous Turner Prize winners include Gilbert & George, Antony Gormley, Damien Hirst and Richard Wright.
The Turner Prize is a great fit with sponsors Nokia and its slogan “connecting people” because it connects people to art.
John Nichols, Marketing Director at Nokia UK said earlier: “Whether it’s art, music, or simply life itself- Nokia is dedicated to connecting people to the things that matter to them most.
“Our involvement with this year’s Turner Prize is a great example of this, bringing our heritage in contemporary design to this prestigious art award – the perfect launch partner for the unique and beautiful Nokia Lumia 800.”