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Ghislaine Leung, Hours 2022. Photo Credit: GRAYSC

Ghislaine Leung, Public Sculpture, 2018. Courtesy the artist and Simian, Copenhagen; and Maxwell Graham, New York; and Cabinet, London. Photo credit GRAYSC

Meet the Turner Prize artist shortlist: Ghislaine Leung

As Education Partner for the Turner Prize 2023, the world’s leading prize for contemporary art, we will be taking a deep dive into the artist shortlist announced in April of this year. We invite you to join us over the following weeks and meet each of the artists. 

Did you know, two University of Sussex alumni have previously won the Turner Prize. Mixed-media artist Helen Cammock, a Sussex sociology graduate, was one of the co-winners of the 2019 prize. And conceptual artist, Jeremy Deller, who holds a British Art History and Critical Theory MA from Sussex, won the Turner Prize in 2004. 

The shortlisted artists for this year’s Turner Prize 2023 are; Jesse Darling, Ghislaine Leung, Rory Pilgrim and Barbara Walker. This week we are shining a spotlight on Ghislaine Leung. 

Meet Ghislaine Leung

Ghislaine Leung was born in 1980 in Stockholm, Sweden. Leung received a BA Fine Art in Context at the University of the West of England in 2002 and a Masters in Aesthetics and Art Theory at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Middlesex University in 2009.

Leung's practice takes a critical look at the socio-political and spatial conditions of art production, its presentation and re-presentation. Over the past decade, Leung has developed a highly conditional process of art making that she describes as score-based artworks. These scores make use of the structures around them — the exhibition space, the duration, the location and the organising partners — as parameters established by a set of conditions for each institution to perform the artwork.

Leung was nominated for her solo exhibition Fountains at Simian, Copenhagen. The exhibition consisted of several score-based works that are open to interpretation and performed by the gallery in discussion with the artist. The presentation at Simian included, amongst others, a baby monitor and a wall drawing representing the hours that Leung can dedicate to working in her studio. These specific examples speak to the realities of working in multiple roles as an artist and mother. The form of Leung’s work is variable and closely connected to the context, as demonstrated by the artwork Fountains (2022). The score for this work simply states: a fountain installed in the exhibition space to cancel sound, which at Simian involved water pouring dramatically into the exhibition space through an opening in the ceiling.

Be part of this year’s Turner Prize 

Visit the exhibition featuring the shortlisted artists at the gallery, Towner Eastbourne, just a short trip along the coast - opens 28 September 2023. The winner will be announced on December 5 2023 at an award ceremony in Eastbourne’s Winter Gardens.

Teams from across the university have also been collaborating with Towner Eastbourne on an inspiring arts education programme. This will include events on campus at the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA), more information coming soon!  

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