Ten artists to receive £10,000 bursaries in place of this year’s Turner Prize

Ten artists have been given £10,000 bursaries in lieu of this year’s Turner Prize.

The annual prize was called off this year because of the pandemic.

A jury picked the 10 artists for their “significant contributions to new developments in British contemporary art”.

They include Arika, an Edinburgh-based political arts organisation whose work “supports connections between art and social change”.

It also features Ghanaian-Russian photographer Liz Johnson Artur, based in London, who has photographed the lives of people from the African diaspora for more than 30 years.

Oreet Ashery’s work explores issues of gender, fiction, biopolitics and community.

While Oxford-based Shawanda Corbett combines ceramics, paintings and performance to question the idea of the “complete” body.

Glasgow-based artist and singer Jamie Crewe uses video, sculpture, drawing and text to examine ideas of identity, power, desire, community and history.

While Cardiff-based artist Sean Edwards intertwines simple sculptural objects and mixed media installations with personal family histories.

And Sidsel Meineche Hansen “investigates the ways in which virtual, robotic and human bodies are manufactured and manipulated in today’s technology-driven, capitalist society”.

London and Amsterdam-based Ima-Abasi Okon works with sculpture, video, sound and installation.

While Imran Perretta was commended for work which reflects on his experiences as a young man of Bangladeshi heritage.

And Alberta Whittle, who lives in Barbados, Scotland and South Africa, uses collage and sculpture to “tackle anti-blackness and the trauma, memory and ecological concerns which come in the aftermath of slavery and colonialism.”

Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson said artists were dealing with the theme of “care” and the work “speaks to our time”.

“They deal with some very serious issues … that we face as a society,” he said.

“The artists are all politically engaged and reflect the pressing issues we face as a society today,” he said, adding that “equally it’s a very aesthetically rich list”.

He added: “These bursaries represent a vote of confidence in that work and offer some much-deserved support in challenging times.”

He said he expects a “smaller, largely local” audience when Tate Britain reopens later this month.

The artists are eligible for the Turner Prize in future.

The Turner Prize will return to its exhibition format in 2021.

Last year, all four shortlisted artists shared the win as a collective.