Jasleen Kaur has been awarded the Turner Prize 2024, receiving the £25,000 ($31,695) prize at a ceremony held yesterday at Tate Britain. Presented by actor James Norton, the event marked the 40th anniversary of the Turner Prize, one of the most renowned awards in contemporary visual art.
Kaur was recognized for her exhibition “Alter Altar,” which animates personally significant objects through sound and music and explores her personal experience of community growing up in Glasgow’s Sikh community. The jury praised her ability to combine personal, political, and spiritual elements in her exhibition, which was first shown at Glasgow art center Tramway last year. Most notably, her work includes a full-size vintage red Ford Escort, its sound system blasting pop and religious songs, draped with an oversized white doily. The installation also includes bottles of Irn Bru (an orange soda from Scotland) and Scottish pound notes, in further references to her upbringing.
In her acceptance speech, Kaur noted how much the prize meant to her, saying she didn’t know about it growing up. “I have had so many messages today from people from the local Sikh community and from folks that I grew up with,” she said. “Something like this that is so visible means a lot to a lot of different people. ”
This year’s shortlist included Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, and Delaine Le Bas. Abad’s nominated work, mostly drawings, etchings, and sculptures, focused on colonial histories of objects in the holdings of the University of Oxford. Johnson’s pastel, gouache, and watercolor portraits of her Black family and friends, meanwhile, counter the lack of representation for her marginalized groups in Western art history. Le Bas presented an immersive installation of painted and embroidered textiles, hung from ceiling to floor. That presentation references the mythologies and histories of the Roma people, an ethnic group that she belongs to. The exhibition of their work is on view at Tate Britain through February 16, 2025.
The Turner Prize, established in 1984 and named after J.M.W. Turner, is awarded annually to a British artist for an outstanding presentation of their work. Other notable winners include Anish Kapoor (1991), Steve McQueen (1999), and Lubaina Himid (2017). Next year, the Turner Prize will move to Cartwright Hall in Bradford, as part of the city’s UK City of Culture 2025 celebrations.
