Eastbourne Gallery To Exhibit Shortlisted Artists' Work For Prestigious Arts Award

The Towner in Eastbourne will be exhibiting the work of the four artists shortlisted for the Turner Prize from September 28 until April 14.

Tate Britain, which presents the prize every other year, announced the names of the four artists on Thursday, April 27: 

Jesse Darling, Ghislaine Leung, Rory Pilgrim and Barbara Walker.

The exhibition will be a major moment in the gallery’s centenary celebrations, with the winner announced on December 5 at an award ceremony in Eastbourne’s Winter Gardens.

One of the world’s best-known prizes for the visual arts, the Turner Prize aims to promote public debate around new developments in contemporary British art. Established in 1984, the prize is named after the radical painter JMW Turner (1775-1851) and is awarded each year to a British artist for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work. The Turner Prize winner will be awarded £25,000 with £10,000 awarded to the other shortlisted artists.

Barbara Walker, Burden of Proof, 2022. Installation view: Sharjah Biennial 15, Old Diwan Al Amiri, 2023. Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation with the support of The Whitworth, The University of Manchester. Photo: Danko Stjepanovic.
 
Turner Prize 2023 is part of Towner 100, a year-long centenary celebration of arts and culture across Eastbourne. The programme launched with two displays this spring exploring the Towner Collection past and present. Towner 100 will continue with a large-scale exhibition of Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures this spring, followed by the Turner Prize in the autumn.
 
The members of the Turner Prize 2023 jury are Martin Clark, Director, Camden Art Centre; Cédric Fauq, Chief Curator, Capc musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux; Melanie Keen, Director of Wellcome Collection; and Helen Nisbet, Artistic Director, Art Night. The jury is chaired by Alex Farquharson, Director, Tate Britain.

Rory Pilgrim, RAFTS, 2022, HD Video (1:06:55), Serpentine Gallery. Photograph by George Darrell. Courtesy andriesse-eyck galerie.

Joe Hill, Director and CEO, Towner Eastbourne, said:

"It is a great pleasure to reveal the four shortlisted artists who will exhibit their work for the Turner Prize 2023, at Towner Eastbourne. Congratulations to Jesse Darling, Ghislaine Leung, Rory Pilgrim and Barbara Walker for their nominations.

"Together they are an incredibly strong set of exhibiting artists, who ask us to look at some of the most pertinent issues of today, and who will collectively bring a sense of place and community to our galleries, through their diverse range of practices, from film and performance to drawing and sculpture.

"We look forward to welcoming you to Towner this autumn to see their work in Eastbourne - there really is something for everyone to engage with in this shortlist and my thanks to the jury for their research, knowledge and insight in putting forward these four brilliant artists for the exhibition."

Jesse Darling, No Medals No Ribbons, installation view at Modern Art Oxford, 2022. Photo by Ben Westoby. © Modern Art Oxford.

Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain and Chair of the Turner Prize jury said:

"It’s a privilege to be able to announce this fantastic shortlist and I congratulate all four of the artists nominated. The Turner Prize always offers the public a snapshot of British artistic talent today.

"These artists each explore the contrasts and contradictions of life, combining conceptual and political concerns with warmth, playfulness, sincerity and tenderness, and often celebrating individual identity and community strength. With such rich work to draw on, we can all look forward to an outstanding exhibition at Towner Eastbourne this autumn."