Playing it safe: this year’s Turner prize nominees lack the anger – and joy – of previous years

From over-serious spoken word to meaningless steel skeletons and bleak military aesthetics, the 2026 shortlist is more notable for what’s missing. It can’t help but feel insular and elitist What do you want from the Turner prize in the year of our lord 2026? Are you after wild, shocking, disturbing, era-defining cultural moments? Please, it’s not the 1990s. How about hard-edged, ultra-conceptual, high-minded aesthetic experimentation? Come on, we haven’t had that for decades. Maybe you expect some culture-war-mongering, super-identitarian, polemically explosive political invective? A bit 2022, I reckon. No, the 2026 Turner prize is something else, something way more appropriate for the age: a bit timid, a bit fearful, a bit safe. Continue reading...

Go to News Site