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An artist who performed an hour-long spoken word piece about his upbringing in Huddersfield, and another whose sculptures examine the political history of oil, have been shortlisted for this year’s Turner prize.
Simeon Barclay has been nominated for his performance the Ruin, and Tanoa Sasraku for her solo exhibition Morale Patch. They have been shortlisted alongside Kira Freije for her first major solo exhibition Unspeak the Chorus, and Marguerite Humeau, for her solo exhibition Torches.
The Turner prize is one of the world’s best-known prizes for the visual arts, and aims to promote public debate around new developments in contemporary British art.
Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain and chair of the Turner prize jury, said this year’s selection “presents a rich and diverse range of work, spanning installation and performance, and with a strong emphasis on sculptural practice”.
He said: “Each artist invites us into carefully constructed scenarios, both real and imagined, that offer distinct perspectives through which to explore the world around us, and to reflect on our place within it.”
Barclay’s The Ruin, the only performance to make the shortlist, merged spoken word with live percussion and drew on the artist’s upbringing in Huddersfield, along with his lived experience of the industrial landscape of northern England.
The jury praised Barclay’s debut performance for its exploration of Britishness, class, race and masculine identity, “through an evocative, experimental use of language and a psychologically immersive soundscape”.
Freije’s Unspeak the Chorus, which exhibited at the Hepworth Wakefield, used metal, fabric and found materials to create sculptures exploring the human condition. The show featured lifesize figures constructed from bare metal armatures and expressive, stonecast faces in poses that “are at once unsettling and beautiful”, the Tate said.
The jury said it was struck by the emotional depth of her work, and praised the haunting, expressive way she transformed the space through her arrangement of figures.
Humeau’s Torches was presented at Aarken Museum of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen, and featured sculptures combining references to natural species and other-worldly forms, bathed in a looped cycle of light and sound.
The jury hailed Humeau’s work for its cinematic exhibition making, and praised her engagement with ecological and existential theme through inventive forms, speculative scenarios and dynamic shifts in scale.
Sasraku completes the shortlist having won plaudits for Morale Patch, which was presented at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
The exhibition explored geopolitical ideas through object-like sculptures, as well as works on paper and film, and focused on recent political and military histories of oil. The judges praised the precision and sophistication of the installation, noting how it addresses complex historical issues with strong contemporary resonances.
An exhibition of the shortlisted artists’ works will be held at Teesside University’s Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (Mima) from 29 September 2026 to 29 March 2027. The winner will be announced with a ceremony at the gallery on 10 December.
The winner will be awarded £25,000, while the other shortlisted artists will receive £10,000 each.
Dr Laura Sillars, director of Mima and dean of culture and creativity at Teesside University, said: “This shortlist promises an extraordinary Turner Prize exhibition at Teesside University’s cultural heart, MIMA. We all look forward to working with the artists over the coming months in Middlesbrough, a place with a strong and growing cultural confidence.
“As the first Turner prize within a university setting, this moment creates a special context, where contemporary art can inspire discussion, dialogue and new ways of thinking.”
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