Great news for the north east of England. The Turner Prize is coming to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead later this year. It's a welcome change to have this major art event held outside London and there are plans for the event to be held at other regional venues every second year in the future. The Baltic, a converted flour mill, provides an ideal venue with it's spacious display areas and a solid reputation that it's built up over the years.
But the change of venue hasn't changed the controversy over the choice of artists which always seems to surround the event. This year the artists short-listed for the prize range from a sculptor of concrete trees to an artist who covers sheets in make-up. Here's a brief guide to the four nominees and an outline of their work.
Karla Black has an innovative approach to sculpture; producing installations out of unusual ephemeral materials such as cellophane, Vaseline, lip gloss and flour.
Martin Boyce, a sculptor, is known for his atmospheric installations influenced by modernism an urban landscape of sculptural trees, litter bins and park benches.
Hilary Lloyd uses sounds and images from the urban environment to create installations using those films, and the projection equipment itself, in the gallery to challenge the viewer with the still and moving images.
George Shaw uses Humbrol enamel paint to depict the area around his childhood home in Coventry in a photo-realistic way. His work represents conventional landscape painting but focuses on images of the mundane and the everyday.
We've never been to a Turner Prize exhibition before as we haven't managed to be in London at the time. With this year's event just up the road on Tyneside, we'll definitely be paying a visit and we'll let you know who we think should win.
The exhibition of the works of the Turner Prize nominees runs from 21 October 2011 to 8 January 2012. You can read more about the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art or Tate Modern.
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