DENNIS HOPPER TO PRESENT 2007 TURNER PRIZE
Award-winning actor, director and art collector, Dennis Hopper will present this year’s Turner Prize at Tate Liverpool on Monday 3 December 2007. The announcement will be broadcast live on Channel 4 News.
For the first time in its history, the prize is being held outside London, as a curtain-raiser for Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008.
The four artists short-listed for the Prize are Zarina Bhimji, Nathan Coley, Mike Nelson and Mark Wallinger. An exhibition of their work runs at Tate Liverpool until 13 January 2008.
The Turner Prize is widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe. Dennis Hopper said: “I am very honoured and excited to be giving this award, as I believe the Turner Prize is the most prestigious award in the art world.”
In addition to acting and directing, Hopper is an internationally known photographer and painter, with retrospective exhibitions in 2001 at the Stedeljik Museum in Amsterdam, and The MAK in Vienna. 2007 brought the most important exhibition of his artistic career at The State Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia with a photographic exhibition to follow at The Manege in Moscow, Russia. He is currently working on an extensive film and art retrospective with the Cinematheque Francais in Paris set to open 13 October 2008.
The members of the Turner Prize 2007 jury are: Fiona Bradley, Director of the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; Michael Bracewell, writer and critic; Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator at the Studio Museum, Harlem; and Miranda Sawyer, freelance broadcaster and writer. Chairman: Christoph Grunenberg, Director of Tate Liverpool.
Past presenters of the Prize include: Yoko Ono, Madonna, Zaha Hadid and Agnès B.