Martin Boyce wins Turner Prize

Martin Boyce with his Turner Prize-winning installation, 'Do Words Have Voices'

The 2011 Turner Prize has been won by Glaswegian sculptor and bookie’s favourite, Martin Boyce.  This marks the third time in as many years that the £25,000 award has been presented to a Scottish artist.  The prize was won by Glaswegian sound artist Susan Philipz in 2010 and by Boyce’s studio-mate Richard Wright in 2009.  Glasgow School of Art graduate Karla Black also made it onto this year’s shortlist.

Drawing  inspiration from  a modernist garden designed by Joel and Jan Martel in 1925, Boyce’s winning installation Do Words Have Voices recalls both interior space and a subdued municipal park.  It’s on display alongside works by fellow finalists George Shaw, Hilary Lloyd and the aforementioned Black at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art until January 8th.

Soda_Jerk win the 2011 Helen Lempriere

Dominique and Dan Angeloro, a.k.a Soda_Jerk

It was only last week that Soda_Jerk (an artist collaboration between sisters Dominique and Dan Angeloro) were announced as recipients of the British Council’s 2011 Realise Your Dream awards.  But this $8,000 prize pales in comparison to the $60,000 they won tonight as the awardees of the 2011 Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship. The sisters plan to use the prize money to travel to the US and the UK, where they’ll intern with Turner Prize nominated artists The Otolith Group amongst other things.

Their video installation After the Rainbow (excerpt below) is on public display at Artspace Sydney as of tomorrow as part of the Scholarship’s accompanying exhibition. The show also features work by finalists Nathan Babet, Ella Barclay, David Capra, Michaela Gleave, Daniel Hollier, Anna Kristensen, Kate Mitchell, Tom Polo, Mark Shorter, Justine Varga and Tessa Zettel & Karl Khoe.

Akiko Diegel Wins 2011 Wallace Art Award

Akiko Diegel, 'Cure', 2011

Akiko Diegel has won the Wallace Arts Trust Paramount Award for ‘Cure’, a work that consists of hundreds of tiny bulldog clips. Part of Diegel’s prize – presented by Mayor of Auckland Len Brown at the Wallace Arts Centre last night – is a six month residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York.

Other winners included Matt Ellwood, Bronwynne Cornish and Philip Dadson.  They were selected by a panel of judges comprised of artists Philip Trusttum, Sara Hughes and Peter Gibson-Smith.

Susan Philipsz wins Turner Prize

Susan Philipsz's prize-winning installation

Berlin-based sound artist Susan Philipz has won this year’s Turner Prize for a sparse installation featuring a cappella recordings of herself singing “Lowlands Away” – a 16th-century Scottish lament about a drowned sailor.  She is the first artist to win the prize for a sound installation.  

Philipz received her £25,000 award last night from Miuccia Prada amidst the clamour of arts students who had stormed the gallery to protest against government cuts to arts education.  The response to the protesters was largely sympathetic, with Philipsz stating: “My heart goes out to them. I really support them.”

Dan Arps wins 2010 Walters Prize

Dan Arps, 'Explaining things', installation view

Last night Auckland artist Dan Arps was awarded the 2010 Walters Prize, New Zealand’s most lucrative art prize.  Beating out fellow finalists Alex Monteith, Fiona Connor and Leg of Lamb favourite Saskia Leek, Arps was selected by international judge and former Tate Modern Director Vicente Todoli for his installation Explaining Things, first shown at Gambia Castle in Auckland in 2008.   Arp’s seemingly casual installation of domestic objects was described by Todoli as “…a revelatory multi-layered experience”.

The work of all 4 finalists is on display at Auckland Art Gallery until the end of the month.

Todoli to Judge 2010 Walters Prize

Vicente Todoli

Vicente Todoli has been announced as the judge of this year’s $50,000 Walters Prize.  The Tate Director steps down from his position at the end of the month and will visit Auckland Art Gallery to view the work of finalists Dan Arps, Fiona Connor, Saskia Leek and Alex Montieth before the opening of the exhibition on July 24.

The Walters Prize, Auckland Art Gallery, corner Wellesley & Kitchener Streets, 24 July – 31 October 2010.

Turner Prize 2010 shortlist announced

Installation shot, 'Angela de la Cruz, After', Camden Arts Centre, London

This year’s Turner Prize finalists are Dexter Dalwood, Angela de la Cruz, Susan Philipsz and The Otolith Group.  The winner of the £25,000 award will be announced on December 6, 2010.