Turner Prize exhibition opens in Glasgow

An exhibition of work by this year’s Turner Prize shortlisted artists – including two Goldsmiths Fine Art tutors – opens in Scotland today (Thursday 1 October).

Lecturer in Fine Art Bonnie Camplin and Reader in Fine Art Janice Kerbel, who both teach on the BA Fine Art programme, are included on the shortlist of four for the 2015 Prize - arguably Europe’s most prestigious contemporary visual art award. 

Seven previous Turner Prize winners, and nearly a quarter of previously shortlisted artists, are either Goldsmiths alumni or staff.

 

Bonnie Camplin was shortlisted for The Military Industrial Complex, South London Gallery. 

Camplin's practice is characterised by the critique of existing power-structures, and spans the disciplines of drawing, film, performance, music and writing. The Military Industrial Complex took the form of a study room exploring what ‘consensus reality’ is and how it is formed, drawing from physics to philosophy, psychology, witchcraft, quantum theory and warfare. 

The exhibition includes images taken from our Department of Psychology, including a baby wearing a hairnet of electrodes: an attempt by scientists to read infant brainwaves. “The experiment looks eminently sensible: in our society, after all, science is regarded as an authority,” notes science editor Ian Sample in the Guardian.

Kerbel was shortlisted for her operatic work Doug commissioned by The Common Guild at Mitchell Library, Glasgow. The 25-minute, nine-movement work for six singers was performed in its complete form just once, at the Library. There was no public recording, nor does Janice Kerbel intend one, explains the Guardian. 

Kerbel borrows from conventional modes of narrative in order to create elaborate imagined forms. Her precisely crafted works often take the form of audio recordings, performance and printed matter. Doug tells of a series of remarkably unfortunate events to strike a man named Doug -a bear attack, a massive object falling out of the sky on to his head, a lightning strike and a drowning among them; all written in poems of different size, shape, tone and verse. 

In a further link to Goldsmiths, arts collective Assemble – who have been appointed to design the new public Gallery at Goldsmiths – have also been shortlisted. 

The exhibition of work by the four shortlisted artists is free and will run from 1 October 2015 until 17 January 2016 at Tramway, Glasgow.

The winner will be announced at an award ceremony on Monday 7 December 2015.  

 

'A creative powerhouse'

Patrick Loughrey, Warden of Goldsmiths said: "Goldsmiths is renowned for being a creative powerhouse where many of the world’s leading artists have studied or taught. [The Turner Prize] shortlist continues that rich tradition with two of our lecturers – Bonnie Camplin and Janice Kerbel, shortlisted. We also congratulate Assemble, the team working on our new art gallery which will cement our reputation for leading art practice even further."

Goldsmiths, University of London, is one of the UK's leading arts universities and has made a huge contribution to Britain's arts heritage over the past century. 

Alumni include previous Turner Prize winners Laure Prouvost, Mark Wallinger, Steve McQueen, Gillian Wearing, Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley and Grenville Davey. 

Find out more about the Department of Art

The Turner Prize award is £40,000 with £25,000 going to the winner and £5,000 each for the other shortlisted artists. 

The Prize, established in 1984, is awarded to a British artist under 50 for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of work in the twelve months preceding 17 April 2015. 

It is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art and is widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe. 

Every other year, the prize leaves Tate Britain and is presented at a venue outside the capital.

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Goldsmiths, University of London, boasts seven previous Turner prize-winners and 24 shortlisted artists

2013

Laure Prouvost MA (Winner)

2010

Angela de la Cruz BA (Shortlisted)
The Otolith Group - Kodwo Eshun, Lecturer in Visual Cultures (Shortlisted) 

2009 
Roger Hiorns BA (Shortlisted)

2008 
Goshka Macuga MA (Shortlisted)

2007 
Mark Wallinger MA (Winner)
Zarina Bhimji BA (Shortlisted)

2006 
Rebecca Warren BA (Shortlisted)

2004 
Yinka Shonibare MA (Shortlisted)

2003 
Anya Gallaccio BA (Shortlisted)

2002 
Fiona Banner MA (Shortlisted)
Liam Gillick BA (Shortlisted)
Catherine Yass MA (Shortlisted)

2000 
Glenn Brown MA (Shortlisted)
Michael Raedecker MA (Shortlisted)
Tomoko Takahashi BA (Shortlisted)

1999 
Steve McQueen BA (Winner)
Jane and Louise Wilson MA (Shortlisted)

1998 
Sam Taylor Wood BA (Shortlisted)
Cathy De Monchaux MA (Shortlisted)

1997 
Gillian Wearing BA (Winner)
Angela Bulloch BA (Shortlisted)

1996 
Gary Hume BA (Shortlisted)
Simon Patterson BA (Shortlisted)

1995 
Damien Hirst BA (Winner)
Mark Wallinger MA (Shortlisted)

1994 
Antony Gormley BA (Winner)

1992 
Grenville Davey BA (Winner)
Damien Hirst BA (Shortlisted)

1991 
Ian Davenport BA (Shortlisted)
Fiona Rae BA (Shortlisted)