Pio Abad makes Turner Prize shortlist

Filipino-British artist Pio Abad has made the shortlist for the United Kingdom’s Turner Prize.

Also in the shortlist for the annual prize are Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur, and Delaine Le Bas. Considered the UK’s most prestigious award for contemporary art, the Turner Prize turns 40 this year. Among the past winners are Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, Rachel Whiteread, Damien Hirst, and Steve McQueen.

Each year the Turner Prize jury shortlists four British artists for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation, explains the Tate Britain website. The prize was founded in 1984.

Abad confirmed the honor in an Instagram post.

“The secret is finally out… BEYOND THRILLED to be nominated for the TURNER PRIZE alongside Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur, and Delaine Le Bas [a series of three alternating brain blown and celebratory emojis]. The nomination is for my current exhibition “To Those Sitting in Darkness” at the @asmoleanmuseum. I share this honor with my community of makers, custodians and storytellers who made this exhibition possible: @fwj_studio my collaborator in art and life, curator @_lena_fritsch_, Agnes Valencak and the Ashmolean team, @carlos villaart, @mkvalledor and @riorocket, @j_aisha2014 and the @sinagtalaweavers. Maraming maraming salamat [prayer and heart emojis].”

The Tate Britain said that an exhibition of the shortlisted artists’ work will be held at the museum from Sept. 25 to Feb. 16, 2025. The winner will be announced at an awarding ceremony at the museum on Dec. 3.

“Pio Abad examines the personal and political entanglements of and within objects,” says his artist’s bio on the website of Silverlens, which represents the artist in the Philippines. “Through a wide-ranging practice encompassing drawing, painting, textiles, installation, and text, Abad mines repressed historical events and offers counternarratives to draw out threads of complicity between incidents, ideologies, and people. Deeply informed by unfolding events in the Philippines, his work emanates from a personal family chronicle woven into the nation’s story.”

THE NOMINEES

Pio Abad. He was nominated for his solo exhibition To Those Sitting in Darkness at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. “Abad’s work considers cultural loss and colonial histories, often reflecting on his upbringing in the Philippines,” states the Turner nomination announcement, which goes on to describe the exhibit. “His exhibition includes drawing, etchings and sculptures which depict, juxtapose and transform artefacts from Oxford museums, highlighting their overlooked histories and drawing parallels with familiar household items,” says the statement.

“The jury commended the precision and elegance with which Abad combines research with new artistic work to ask questions of museums. They also remarked on both the sensitivity and clarity with which he brings history into the present.”

Claudette Johnson. She was nominated for two exhibits: her solo exhibition Presence at The Courtauld Gallery, London, and Drawn Out at Ortuzar Projects, New York. “Johnson is noted for her figurative portraits of Black women and men in a combination of pastels, gouache and watercolor,” said the Tate. “Countering the marginalization of Black people in Western art history, Johnson shifts perspectives and invests her portraits of family and friends with a palpable sense of presence.

“In a year that the jury felt represented a milestone in her practice, they were struck by Johnson’s sensitive and dramatic use of line, color, space and scale to express empathy and intimacy with her subjects.”

Jasleen Kaur. She was nominated for her solo exhibition Alter Altar at Tramway, Glasgow. “Exploring cultural inheritance, solidarity and autobiography, Kaur created sculptures from everyday objects, each animated through an immersive sound composition, giving them an uncanny illusion of life. Objects including family photos, an Axminster carpet, a vintage Ford Escort covered in a giant doily, Irn-Bru and kinetic hand bells were orchestrated to convey the artist’s upbringing in Glasgow’s Sikh community,” said the Tate.

“The jury praised the artist’s evocative combination of sound and sculpture to address specifics of family memory and community struggle.”

Delaine Le Bas. She wasnominated for her presentation Incipit Vita Nova. Here Begins The New Life/A New Life Is Beginning at Secession, Vienna. “Le Bas transformed the gallery into an immersive performative environment hung with painted fabrics and filled with theatrical costumes and sculptures. Drawing on the rich cultural history of the Roma people and her interest in mythologies, the artist addressed themes of death, loss and renewal, inspired by the passing of her grandmother,” said the nomination announcement.

“Noting Le Bas’s boldness at this moment in her practice, the jury were impressed by the energy and immediacy present in this exhibition, and its powerful expression of making art in a time of chaos.”

“It is an honor to announce such a fantastic shortlist of artists and I cannot wait to see their exhibition at Tate Britain this autumn,” Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain and chair of the Turner Prize jury said. “All four of them make work that is full of life. They show how contemporary art can fascinate, surprise and move us, and how it can speak powerfully of complex identities and memories, often through the subtlest of details. In the Turner Prize’s 40th year, this shortlist proves that British artistic talent is as rich and vibrant as ever.”

The Turner Prize winner will be awarded £25,000 with £10,000 awarded to the other shortlisted artists. — AAH