Beck's Futures was a British art prize founded by

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

and sponsored by Beck's

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

given to contemporary

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

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 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, r ...

, they had also commissioned a number of works by artists, including

Rachel Whiteread Dame Rachel Whiteread (born 20 April 1963) is an English artist who primarily produces sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She was the first woman to win the annual Turner Prize in 1993. Whiteread was one of the Young British Ar ...

's '' House'' and ''Water Tower'' and pieces by

Douglas Gordon Douglas Gordon (born 20 September 1966) is a Scottish artist. He won the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Work Much of Gordon's ...

and

Tony Oursler Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

. Although it does not receive as much publicity as the

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...

, 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 Buchanan *2001 - Tim Stoner *2002 - Toby Paterson *2003 - Rosalind Nashashibi *2004 -

Saskia Olde Wolbers Saskia Olde Wolbers (born 1971) is a Dutch video artist who lives and works in London. Background Since the mid-1990s, Saskia Olde Wolbers has been developing fictional documentaries often loosely based on factual events. Her intricate videos a ...

*2005 -

Christina Mackie Christina Mackie (born 1956, Oxford, UK) is a British artist who works in the fields of sculpture, video, photography and drawing. Background Mackie was born in Oxford, England, in 1956. She studied at the Vancouver School of Art graduating in 19 ...

*2006 - Matt Stokes The 2003 prize, presented by Wim Wenders, was awarded on 29 April at the

. As well as Nashashibi, the shortlisted artists were Bernd Behr, Nick Crowe, Alan Currall, Inventory, David Sherry,

Lucy Skaer Lucy Skaer (born 1975) is a contemporary English artist who works with sculpture, film, painting, and drawing. Her work has been exhibited internationally. Skaer is a member of the Henry VIII’s Wives artist collective, and has exhibited a numb ...

, Francis Upritchard and

Carey Young Carey Young (born 1970) is a visual artist whose work is often inspired by law, politics and economics. The tools, language and architectures of these fields act as material for her videos, text works, performances and photographs, often develo ...

. The panel of judges was chaired by the artist

Michael Landy Michael Landy (born 1963) is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs). He is best known for the performance piece installation '' Break Down'' (2001), in which he destroyed all his possessions, and for the ''Art Bin'' project (2010) at the ...

, and also included the curators

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. Russell is a graduate of the Boston Arts Academy and attended the University of ...

Maria Lind Maria Lind (born in Stockholm in 1966) is a Swedish curator, art writer and educator. Since 2020, she has been the Counsellor of Cultural Affairs at the Embassy of Sweden in Moscow. For over three decades, Lind has developed a distinct curatori ...

and

Hans Ulrich Obrist Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a Swiss art curator, critic, and historian of art. He is artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Obrist is the author of ''The Interview Project'', an extensive ongoing project of interviews. He is ...

. The 2004 prize was awarded on 27 April to

. The other shortlisted artists were

Haluk Akakçe Haluk Akakçe (born 1970 in Turkey) 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 tra ...

, Tonico Lemos Auad,

Simon Bedwell Simon Bedwell (born 1963 in Croydon, Surrey) is an English artist based in London. Bedwell has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including solo shows ''The Furnishers'' at White Columns in New York City, ''Galleon and Other Stories' ...

, Ergin Çavusoglu, Andrew Cross,

Susan Philipsz Susan Mary Philipsz OBE (born 1965) is a Scottish artist who won the 2010 Turner Prize. Originally a sculptor, she is best known for her sound installations. She records herself singing a cappella versions of songs which are replayed over a pub ...

, Imogen Stidworthy, Hayley Tompkins and Nicoline Van Harskamp. The 2005 prize, presented by Richard Hamilton, was awarded on 26 April to

. The other shortlisted artists were

Lali Chetwynd Monster Chetwynd (born Alalia Chetwynd, 1973, best known as Spartacus Chetwynd and Marvin Gaye Chetwynd) is a British artist known for reworkings of iconic moments from cultural history in improvised performances. In 2012, she was nominated for ...

, Luke Fowler,

Ryan Gander Ryan Gander OBE RA (born 1976) is a British artist. Gander is a wheelchair user who does not identify as being disabled. He explains: "I don't even feel disabled. I've spent my whole life trying not to be disabled, so I don't want to be labe ...

, Daria Martin, and Donald Urquhart. The 2006 prize was awarded to Matt Stokes by a panel made-up of

Jake and Dinos Chapman Iakovos "Jake" Chapman (born 1966) and Konstantinos "Dinos" Chapman (born 1962) are British visual artists, often known as the Chapman Brothers. Their subject matter tries to be deliberately shocking, including, in 2008, a series of works that ...

Martin Creed Martin Creed (born 21 October 1968) is a British artist, composer and performer. He won the Turner Prize in 2001 for exhibitions during the preceding year, with the jury praising his audacity for exhibiting a single installation, ''Work No. 22 ...

Cornelia Parker Cornelia Ann Parker (born 14 July 1956) is an English visual artist, best known for her sculpture and installation art.Yinka Shonibare Yinka Shonibare (born 9 August 1962), is a British-Nigerian artist living in the United Kingdom. His work explores cultural identity, colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalisation. A hallmark of his art is t ...

and

Gillian Wearing Gillian Wearing CBE, RA (born 10 December 1963) is an English conceptual artist, one of the Young British Artists, and winner of the 1997 Turner Prize. In 2007 Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He ...

. 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 Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...

, Matt Stokes,

Sue Tompkins Sue Tompkins is a British visual and sound artist based in Glasgow. She was the vocalist for indie rock band Life Without Buildings. Biography Tompkins was born in Leighton Buzzard in 1971. She studied painting at the Glasgow School of Art, and ...

Bedwyr Williams Bedwyr Williams (born 1974) in St. Asaph is a Welsh artist. He works across varied media including drawing, painting, writing and video.. Biography He studied at St Martins School of Art and Ateliers, Arnhem. In 2004, he won a Paul Hamlyn Awa ...

. This was to be the Beck's sponsored prize's last year.

External links

A review of the 2003 prize show by Adrian Searle in ''The Guardian''
{{Authority control British art awards Visual arts awards Awards established in 2000

Winners

See also

External links