Elizabeth Price Wins Turner Prize 2012

Congratulations to Elizabeth Price, who has won this year’s Turner Prize.

Presented last night by actor Jude Law at Tate Britain, Elizabeth scooped the £25,000 prize for her trio of films exhibited at the Baltic in Gateshead. However, it was her 20 minute film, The Woolworths Choir of 1979, that was exhibited at the Turner show this year and that has especially delighted audiences with its powerful fusion of ecclesiastical architecture, a 1960s girl band performance and a tragic furniture store blaze that helped change UK fire laws.

The Turner Prize is awarded to a British artist, which includes artists working in the UK, aged 50 or under for an outstanding exhibition of their work in the preceding 12 months. This year, Bradford-born Elizabeth Price saw off strong competition from acclaimed artists Spartacus Chetwynd, Luke Fowler and bookies’ favourite Paul Noble to win the prize. The judges were Andrew Hunt, director of Focal Point Gallery in Southend; Heike Munder, director of Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst (contemporary art) in Zurich; and Mark Sladen, director of Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. Previous winners include Gilbert & George, Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor and Rachel Whiteread.

The Contemporary Art Society is proud to have worked with Elizabeth Price in the lead-up to her Turner Prize nomination, as part of our mission to support new artists and bring their work to a national audience. We have also worked with two other Turner Prize 2012 nominees early in their careers - Luke Fowler won our £60,000 Annual Award in 2010 to commission a new work with the Hepworth Wakefield, and we purchased Paul Noble's work, Unified Nobson (2001) for Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.

Elizabeth’s work User Group Disco will be on display at our space in Central Street in January and Elizabeth herself will be giving a talk about her work and career and how the Contemporary Art Society has supported her.

For further information please contact the Contemporary Art Society on +44 (0)20 7017 8412 or info@contemporaryartsociety.org