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Ruskin Alumna Helen Marten nominated for the Turner Prize 2016 & The Hepworth Prize for Sculpture

The Ruskin is proud that alumna Helen Marten (BFA 2008) has been shortlisted for both the Turner Prize 2016 and The Hepworth Prize for Sculpture.

Limpet Apology (traffic tenses), 2015 / Copyright: The Artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London and Greene Naftali, New York Photography: Annik Wetter, Geneva

Limpet Apology (traffic tenses), 2015 (detail) screen printing and painting on leather, suede, cotton, velvet; stained and sprayed Ash; folded steel; enamel paint on Balsa wood; airbrushed steel; magnets; inlaid Formica; Cherry / Copyright: The Artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London and Greene Naftali, New York Photography: Annik Wetter, Geneva

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Helen will participate in the Turner Prize exhibition, this year to be held at Tate Britain, London, between 27 September 2016 – 8 January 2017.

She has been nominated for projects including Lunar Nibs at the 56th Venice Biennale and the solo exhibition Eucalyptus Let Us In at Green Naftali, New York.  

Helen Marten "brings together a wide range of found objects and immaculately crafted elements in her sculptures. While suggestive of contemporary visual culture, as well as various kinds of art since the 60s, the work defies both form and meaning: it attracts and intrigues while also resisting interpretation and categorisation." (Tate)

Helen has also been shortlisted for the Hepworth Prize for Sculpture.  This is a new biennial award, organised by The Hepworth Wakefield, that recognises artists who have made a significant contribution to the development of contemporary sculpture. Simon Wallis, Director of The Hepworth Wakefield and Chair of the Selecting Panel said: “We are delighted to have such a strong and diverse shortlist for our inaugural Prize and are looking forward to working with these artists and to inspire and engage our audiences with the medium of sculpture."

Adrian Searle of the Guardian writes: "Helen Marten is baffling [...], in a good way. In fact, she could probably take a word like baffle and tease a sculpture from it. Her work homes in on details and swerves off at tangents to talk about the texture of the world, the scale and timbre of the things around us... Marten has everything going for her..."

Helen Marten also has a Serpentine Gallery exhibition later this summer. 

Night-blooming genera, 2015 (detail) spun aluminium, airbrushed steel, welded steel, lacquered hardwoods, stitched fabric, hand-thrown glazed ceramic, leather, glass, feathers, acid etched concrete Photograph: Copyright: The Artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London and Greene Naftali, New York Photography: Annik Wetter, Geneva