Beck's Futures
Encyclopedia
Beck's Futures was a British
art prize founded by London
's Institute of Contemporary Arts
and sponsored by Beck's
beer
given to contemporary art
ists.
Prior to the establishment of the prize in 2000, Beck's had sponsored several exhibitions of contemporary art in Britain by providing free beer. Together with Artangel
, they had also commissioned a number of works by artists, including Rachel Whiteread
's House and Water Tower and pieces by Douglas Gordon
and Tony Oursler
.
Although it does not receive as much publicity as the Turner Prize
, the prize fund is larger - in 2003, it was £65,000 to the Turner Prize's £20,000. Of this, £20,000 went to the winner, who also took a share of the £40,000 divided between all the shortlisted artists. The remaining £5,000 was allocated to the Student Prize for Film and Video, with £2,000 of that going to the winner.
For the first three years of the prize a call for nominations was made to curators and critics around the UK. This proved controversial as unlike the Turner Prize artists knew they had been nominated even if they did not make the final shortlist. The open call was replaced with an anonymous nominations panel.
The 2003 prize, presented by Wim Wenders
, was awarded on April 29 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts
. As well as Nashashibi, the shortlisted artists were Bernd Behr
, Nick Crowe, Alan Currall
, Inventory
, David Sherry
, Lucy Skaer
, Francis Upritchard
and Carey Young
. The panel of judges was chaired by the artist Michael Landy
, and also included the curators Russell Ferguson
, Maria Lind and Hans Ulrich Obrist
.
The 2004 prize was awarded on April 27 to Saskia Olde Wolbers
. The other shortlisted artists were Haluk Akakçe
, Tonico Lemos Auad, Simon Bedwell
, Ergin Çavusoglu, Andrew Cross, Susan Philipsz
, Imogen Stidworthy
, Hayley Tompkins and Nicoline Van Harskamp.
The 2005 prize, presented by Richard Hamilton
, was awarded on April 26 to Christina Mackie. The other shortlisted artists were Lali Chetwynd
, Luke Fowler
, Ryan Gander
, Daria Martin, and Donald Urquhart.
The 2006 prize was awarded to Matt Stokes
by a panel made-up of Jake and Dinos Chapman
, Martin Creed
, Cornelia Parker
, Yinka Shonibare
and Gillian Wearing
. There was also a public vote, the outcome of which was added as an extra vote in the judging panels final count. Shortlisted for the prize were Blood ‘n’ Feathers (Jo Robertson & Lucy Stein, Pablo Bronstein
, Stefan Brüggemann, Richard Hughes, Flávia Müller Medeiros, Seb Patane, Olivia Plender
, Simon Popper, Jamie Shovlin
, Daniel Sinsel, Matt Stokes
, Sue Tompkins
, Bedwyr Williams
. This was to be the Beck's
sponsored prize's last year.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
art prize founded by London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
and sponsored by Beck's
Beck's
Brauerei Beck & Co is a German brewery in the north German city of Bremen. Owned by local families until February 2002, it was then sold to Interbrew for 1.8 billion euros. The brewery was formed under the name Kaiserbrauerei Beck & May o.H.G. in 1873 by Lüder Rutenberg, Heinrich Beck and Thomas...
beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
given to contemporary art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
ists.
Prior to the establishment of the prize in 2000, Beck's had sponsored several exhibitions of contemporary art in Britain by providing free beer. Together with Artangel
Artangel
Artangel is a London-based arts organisation founded in 1985 by Roger Took. Directed since 1991 by James Lingwood and Michael Morris, it has commissioned and produced a string of notable site-specific works, plus several projects for TV, film, radio and the web...
, they had also commissioned a number of works by artists, including Rachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread, CBE is an English artist, best known for her sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She won the annual Turner Prize in 1993—the first woman to win the prize....
's House and Water Tower and pieces by Douglas Gordon
Douglas Gordon
Douglas Gordon is a Scottish artist; he won the Turner Prize in 1996 and the following year he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale...
and Tony Oursler
Tony Oursler
Tony Oursler is a multimedia and installation artist.- Tapes, Installations: 1977-1989:Tony Oursler is known for his fractured-narrative handmade video tapes including The Loner, 1980 and EVOL 1984. These works involve elaborate sound tracks, painted sets, stop-action animation and optical special...
.
Although it does not receive as much publicity as the Turner Prize
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
, the prize fund is larger - in 2003, it was £65,000 to the Turner Prize's £20,000. Of this, £20,000 went to the winner, who also took a share of the £40,000 divided between all the shortlisted artists. The remaining £5,000 was allocated to the Student Prize for Film and Video, with £2,000 of that going to the winner.
For the first three years of the prize a call for nominations was made to curators and critics around the UK. This proved controversial as unlike the Turner Prize artists knew they had been nominated even if they did not make the final shortlist. The open call was replaced with an anonymous nominations panel.
Winners
- 2000 - Roderick BuchananRoderick BuchananRoderick Buchanan is a Scottish artist working in the fields of installation, film and photography.After attending Thomas Muir High School, Buchanan studied at the Glasgow School of Art in the 1980s, where he was part of a group later described as "The Irascibles", which included fellow students...
- 2001 - Tim StonerTim StonerTim Stoner is an English painter. Growing up in London he attended Leyton Sixth Form College where one of his teachers was Kath Trotter...
- 2002 - Toby Paterson
- 2003 - Rosalind NashashibiRosalind NashashibiRosalind Nashashibi is a British artist of Palestinian descent.Born in Croydon, Nashashibi studied at the Glasgow School of Art, and as of 2003 is based in Glasgow...
- 2004 - Saskia Olde WolbersSaskia Olde WolbersSaskia Olde Wolbers is a video artist who lives and works in London, England .-Background:She studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, The Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and Chelsea College of Art and Design.Since the mid-1990s, she has been developing fictional documentaries...
- 2005 - Christina Mackie
- 2006 - Matt StokesMatt StokesFor the Australian rules footballer Matt Stokes see Matthew StokesMatt Stokes, born 1973 in Penzance, is an artist and film-maker. He had a residency at Grizedale Arts in 2002 during which he researched the history of rave culture in the Lake District...
The 2003 prize, presented by Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
, was awarded on April 29 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
. As well as Nashashibi, the shortlisted artists were Bernd Behr
Bernd Behr
Bernd Behr is a Taiwanese/German artist based in London.Born in Hamburg and raised in Malaysia, Behr studied at San José State University, California and Goldsmiths College, London.Behr was shortlisted for the 2003 Beck's Futures prize...
, Nick Crowe, Alan Currall
Alan Currall
Alan Currall is a Scottish artist.Currall was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, and grew up in Staffordshire and Ayrshire, Scotland. Currall studied at the Glasgow School of Art and since 2003 has been based in Glasgow....
, Inventory
Inventory (artists)
Inventory are a collective of British artists, writers and art theorists, founded in 1996.Some of their pieces see them engage in performance art in public spaces....
, David Sherry
David Sherry
David Sherry is an artist.Sherry was born in Northern Ireland before studying at the Glasgow School of Art. He is best known for his performance art. Stitching is a video of him stitching pieces of wood to his feet while he offers verbal instructions on how to do this...
, Lucy Skaer
Lucy Skaer
Lucy Skaer is a British artist.Skaer was born in Cambridge and studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1993 to 1997, graduating with a BA Hons in Fine Art. She currently lives and works in Glasgow and London....
, Francis Upritchard
Francis Upritchard
Francis Upritchard is a New Zealand born artist living in London. Upritchard represented New Zealand at the 2009 Venice Biennale.-Life and Career:...
and Carey Young
Carey Young
Carey Young is a visual artist who incorporates a variety of media such as video, photography, performative events and installation into her works, which investigate the increasing incorporation of the personal and public domains into the realm of the commercial...
. The panel of judges was chaired by the artist Michael Landy
Michael Landy
Michael Landy RA is one of the Young British Artists . He is best known for the performance piece installation Break Down , in which he destroyed all his possessions, and for the Art Bin project at the South London Gallery. On 29 May 2008 Landy was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in...
, and also included the curators Russell Ferguson
Russell Ferguson
Russell Ferguson is an American Krump dancer from Boston, Massachusetts. He won So You Think You Can Dance season 6, making him the first Krumper to win the title....
, Maria Lind and Hans Ulrich Obrist
Hans Ulrich Obrist
Hans Ulrich Obrist is a contemporary art curator, critic and historian of art. He is currently Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery, London...
.
The 2004 prize was awarded on April 27 to Saskia Olde Wolbers
Saskia Olde Wolbers
Saskia Olde Wolbers is a video artist who lives and works in London, England .-Background:She studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, The Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and Chelsea College of Art and Design.Since the mid-1990s, she has been developing fictional documentaries...
. The other shortlisted artists were Haluk Akakçe
Haluk Akakçe
Haluk Akakçe is a contemporary artist living and working in New York and Istanbul whose work explores the intersections between society and technology through video animations, wall paintings and sound installations. He trained in architecture at Bilkent University, Ankara, then graduated with...
, Tonico Lemos Auad, Simon Bedwell
Simon Bedwell
Simon Bedwell is an artist based in London.He has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including solo show “The Furnishers” at White Columns in New York, “Galleon and Other Stories” at the Saatchi Gallery in London, “England Their England” at Laden fur Nichts in Leipzig, “Beck's Futures...
, Ergin Çavusoglu, Andrew Cross, Susan Philipsz
Susan Philipsz
Susan Philipsz is a Scottish artist who won the 2010 Turner Prize. In her youth, she sang with her sisters in a Catholic church choir in Maryhill. She studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee from 1989–1993 and then at the University of Ulster in Belfast in 1993-4. She was a...
, Imogen Stidworthy
Imogen Stidworthy
Imogen Stidworthy is a British multimedia artist based in Liverpool.She has exhibited at documenta 12 and most recently her work has been shown at the Thessaloniki Biennale , Shanghai Biennale , “Be What You Want but Stay Where You Are” at Witte de With, Rotterdam and ‘Governmentality’ at Miami...
, Hayley Tompkins and Nicoline Van Harskamp.
The 2005 prize, presented by Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton (artist)
Richard William Hamilton, CH was a British painter and collage artist. His 1956 collage, Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?, produced for the This Is Tomorrow exhibition of the Independent Group in London, is considered by critics and historians to be one of the...
, was awarded on April 26 to Christina Mackie. The other shortlisted artists were Lali Chetwynd
Lali Chetwynd
Lali "Spartacus" Chetwynd is a British artist. She reworks iconic moments from cultural history in deliberately amateurish and improvisatory performances.-Life:...
, Luke Fowler
Luke Fowler
Luke Fowler is an artist, filmmaker and musician based in Glasgow. He studied printmaking at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee. His documentary films have explored counter cultural figures including Scottish psychiatrist R. D...
, Ryan Gander
Ryan Gander
Ryan Gander is a disabled English artist. He is a native of Chester.- Personal background :Ryan Gander is a wheelchair user with a long-term physical disability, however, he is reluctant to discuss his physical limitations in interviews with the press.. Some of his work makes reference to the fact...
, Daria Martin, and Donald Urquhart.
The 2006 prize was awarded to Matt Stokes
Matt Stokes
For the Australian rules footballer Matt Stokes see Matthew StokesMatt Stokes, born 1973 in Penzance, is an artist and film-maker. He had a residency at Grizedale Arts in 2002 during which he researched the history of rave culture in the Lake District...
by a panel made-up of Jake and Dinos Chapman
Jake and Dinos Chapman
Iakovos "Jake" Chapman and Konstantinos "Dinos" Chapman are English visual artists, often known as the Chapman Brothers, who work together as a collaborative sibling duo...
, Martin Creed
Martin Creed
Martin Creed is an artist and musician. He won the Turner Prize in 2001 for Work No. 227: the lights going on and off, which was an empty room in which the lights went on and off.-Life and work :...
, Cornelia Parker
Cornelia Parker
Cornelia Ann Parker OBE, RA is an English sculptor and installation artist. -Life and career:Parker studied at Gloucestershire College of Art and Design and Wolverhampton Polytechnic...
, Yinka Shonibare
Yinka Shonibare
Yinka Shonibare, MBE, is a British-Nigerian artist living in the UK. He readily acknowledges physical disability as part of his identity but creates work in which this is just one strand of a far richer weave.-Life and career:...
and Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing OBE RA is an English conceptual artist, one of the YBAs, and winner of the annual British fine arts award, The Turner Prize, in 1997. On 11 December 2007, Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London....
. There was also a public vote, the outcome of which was added as an extra vote in the judging panels final count. Shortlisted for the prize were Blood ‘n’ Feathers (Jo Robertson & Lucy Stein, Pablo Bronstein
Pablo Bronstein
Pablo Bronstein is an artist based in London. He attended Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, at the University of the Arts London, theSlade School of Fine Art, UCL, and graduated from Goldsmiths College of Art....
, Stefan Brüggemann, Richard Hughes, Flávia Müller Medeiros, Seb Patane, Olivia Plender
Olivia Plender
Olivia Plender is an artist based in Berlin.Plender was born in London. Her work comprises video installations, performances, text, as well as drawings and printed matter...
, Simon Popper, Jamie Shovlin
Jamie Shovlin
Jamie Shovlin is a British conceptual artist.He staged his first exhibition in 2004 basing it on what he claimed were the drawings of a disappeared schoolgirl called Naomi V. Jelish. He supported this claim with newspaper cuttings and diaries, and the work was bought for £25,000 by Charles Saatchi...
, Daniel Sinsel, Matt Stokes
Matt Stokes
For the Australian rules footballer Matt Stokes see Matthew StokesMatt Stokes, born 1973 in Penzance, is an artist and film-maker. He had a residency at Grizedale Arts in 2002 during which he researched the history of rave culture in the Lake District...
, Sue Tompkins
Sue Tompkins
Sue Tompkins is a British visual and sound artist based in Glasgow. She is best known as vocalist for the now defunct indie rock band Life Without Buildings.-Biography:Tompkins studied painting at the Glasgow School of Art, and graduated in 1994...
, Bedwyr Williams
Bedwyr Williams
Bedwyr Williams is a Welsh artist. His work combines installation and stand-up comedy.He studied at St Martins School of Art and Ateliers, Arnhem....
. This was to be the Beck's
Beck's
Brauerei Beck & Co is a German brewery in the north German city of Bremen. Owned by local families until February 2002, it was then sold to Interbrew for 1.8 billion euros. The brewery was formed under the name Kaiserbrauerei Beck & May o.H.G. in 1873 by Lüder Rutenberg, Heinrich Beck and Thomas...
sponsored prize's last year.