Susan Philipsz Wins 2010 Turner Prize

Scottish artist Susan Philipsz has been announced laureate of the 2010 Turner Prize at an award ceremony today, Britain's most prestigious contemporary art award.

The prize has been awarded to Philipsz for the presentations of her work Lowlands at the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and Long Gone in the group exhibition Mirrors at the Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo, Spain. Philipsz uses her own voice to create uniquely evocative sound installations that play upon and extend the poetics of specific, often out-of-the-way spaces. Reconfigured for the Turner Prize, Philipsz’s vocals reverberate and expand in the otherwise vacant gallery. Drawing on the powerful, immersive properties of sound and the human voice, Philipsz is engaged with the notion of singing as a physical and sculptural experience.

Other shortlisted artists for the 2010 prize were Dexter Dalwood, Angela de la Cruz, and The Otolith Group. The jury included Isabel Carlos, Director, Centre for Modern Art CAMJAP; Philip Hensher, Writer, critic and journalist; Andrew Nairne, Executive Director, Arts Strategy, Arts Council England; Polly Staple, Director, Chisenhale Gallery and Penelope Curtis, Director, Tate Britain and Chair of the Jury.

The ongoing Turner 2010 exhibition at the Tate Britain in London features work by the four shortlisted artists and will be open until January 3, 2011.