4 December 2024

Glasgow artist wins 2024 Turner Prize for Tramway exhibition

artist with brown hair and blonde highlights wearing NHS t-shirt sitting on the hood of an orange car

Artist Jasleen Kaur, who grew up in Glasgow and is a graduate of Glasgow School of Art, has been named the winner of the Turner Prize 2024.

Jasleen was nominated for her solo exhibition 'Alter Altar', which took place last year at Glasgow Life’s contemporary arts venue Tramway – not far from where she was born in Pollokshields.

Reflecting her Sikh upbringing in Glasgow and celebrating the city’s rich and diverse culture, Alter Altar featured a series of installations and kinetic, musical sculptures. Incorporating everyday objects – including a vintage Ford Escort, Axminster carpet, bottles of Irn Bru, political flyers and family photos – as well as sound, the exhibition explored the ways we not only choose to define ourselves but also how we preserve and challenge our own traditions.

The Turner Prize judges noted the considered way in which Jasleen’s work “weaves together the personal, political and spiritual”.

The other artists shortlisted for this year’s prestigious art prize were Delaine le Bas – who had a solo exhibition at Tramway this summer – Pio Abad, and Claudette Johnson.

Jenny Crowe, Senior Manager at Tramway, said: “The Turner Prize has a special place in the heart of Glasgow’s cultural life with so many past winners based in or from the city, including Charlotte Prodger, Duncan Campbell, Martin Boyce, and Douglas Gordon – all Glasgow School of Art graduates and previous exhibitors at the city’s Tramway art centre. Congratulations to Jasleen Kaur and all the nominated artists.”   

Richard Birkett, Director of Glasgow International, said: “Huge congratulations to Jasleen Kaur for the recognition of her work by this year’s Turner Prize jury. We’re very proud of Jasleen’s links to Glasgow and history with Glasgow arts organisations. The city has a unique and rich relationship to contemporary art, demonstrated by the extraordinary number of Turner Prize winners and nominees who have lived and worked here and studied or taught at the Glasgow School of Art.”