Turner Prize 2024

Interesting exhibition at Tate Britain marking this year’s Turner Prize for contemporary art.

It showcased the four quite different finalists and yet I felt they were looking at quite similar themes.

The show started with Pio Abad who had investigated and reacted to items in Oxford museums acquired during the colonial era. The work was beautiful and layered in meaning.  I was intrigued to find one work was inspired by the fact he lives in the Grand Stores of the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich which served as the primary storage facility for the military equipment of the British Army and Navy. My flat overlooks them! 

Next was Jasleen Kaur’s installations using objects with reflect her multicultural childhood in Glasgow. Who can resist an oversized doillie on a Ford Escort. Then came another installation artist, Delaine Le Bas, exploring their culture, in this case Roma people, with ethereal crepe and a silver room. I’m not sure I really understood it.

Finally there were the wonderful portraits be Claudette Johnson, whose exhibition at the Courtauld, for which she was nominated, I’d loved. It was great to see her work again but it would have been good to see it displayed in a more exciting way.

Closed 16 February 2025


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