Sculptor Martin Boyce has won the Turner Prize, it was announced Dec 5. Boyce is the third artist from Glasgow in as many years to take home Britain’s top recognition for contemporary art after Richard Wright in 2009 and Susan Philipsz in 2010.
The award ceremony and exhibition of nominated artists took place this year at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, the first time the event has been held outside of the Tate family of galleries.
Born in 1967, this year’s winner Boyce is a graduate of Glasgow School of Art’s environmental art course, which also produced the 1996 Turner Prize winner Douglas Gordon. Having represented Scotland a the 2009 Venice Biennale, Boyce is known for atmospheric installations that reinvent the language of modernism, often specifically borrowing from the cubist trees that brothers Joël and Jan Martel designed for the Exposition de Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris in 1925. His installation for the Turner Prize exhibition evoked an urban park space, with elements including a canopy of leaves suspended from the ceiling, an eccentric table based on a design by Jean Prouvé, and a rubbish bin, all given a distinct formal nuance.
The judges commended Boyce’s work for “opening up a new sense of poetry.” They included the director of Baltic, Godfrey Worsdale, as well as the curators Katrina Brown, Vasif Kortun and Nadia Schneider, and were chaired by the director of Tate Britain, Penelope Curtis.
The other nominees were painter George Shaw, sculptor Karla Black and video artist Hilary Lloyd.
As prize winner, Boyce receives £25,000, while the runners-up receive £5,000 each.