Tate Britain has announced the four artists in the running to win the Turner Prize 2026 – Simeon Barclay, Kira Freije, Marguerite Humeau and Tanoa Sasraku.

An exhibition of their artworks will go on display at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art from 26 September to 29 March 2027, and the winner will be announced at an award ceremony at the gallery on 10 December.

Established in 1984, the prize aims to promote public debate around new developments in contemporary British art. The Turner Prize winner will be awarded £25,000, with £10,000 awarded to the other shortlisted artists.

This will be the 10th year the Turner Prize exhibition has been staged outside London.

 So who’s in the running for the prize?

Simeon Barclay
A man with short curly hair, wearing a black blazer over a white shirt and dark pants, stands in front of a white metal gate with a geometric pattern, looking to his left with his hands in his pockets.
Portrait of Simeon Barclay Courtesy the Artist & Workplace

Simeon Barclay is nominated for his performance The Ruin, commissioned by the Roberts Institute of Art and shown at the ICA in London, the Hepworth Wakefield, and New Art Exchange Nottingham.

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The hour-long spoken word performance, featuring live percussion by James Larter and horn by Isaac Shieh, draws on Barclay’s upbringing in Huddersfield and his lived experience of the industrial landscape of northern England.

The jury praised Barclay’s debut performance for its exploration of Britishness, class, race and masculine identity through an evocative, experimental use of language and a psychologically immersive soundscape.

Kira Freije
Kira Freije © Robin Bernstein

Kira Freije is nominated for her first major solo exhibition, Unspeak the Chorus co-commissioned by Modern Art Oxford alongside the Hepworth. Freije uses metal, fabric and found materials to create sculptures that explore universal human emotions, featuring life-size figures constructed from bare metal armatures and expressive stonecast faces.

The jury praised the emotional depth of Freije’s work, highlighting its unique sculptural vocabulary of materials and forms, as well as the haunting, expressive way she transformed the space through her arrangement of figures.

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Marguerite Humeau
A woman in a long navy dress and sunglasses stands outdoors on a sunny day, with mountains and a partly cloudy sky in the background. She holds something in her hand and has short, dark curly hair.
Marguerite Humeau in “Orisons” 2023 Photography by Julia Andreone and Florine Bonaventure. Image courtesy the artist and Black Cube Art Museum

Marguerite Humeau is nominated for her solo exhibition Torches, presented at ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen and Helsinki Art Museum. Her work examines the formation of life, ancient human history and imagined future worlds.

Her sculptures combine references to specific natural species and other-worldly forms, bathed in a looped cycle of light and sound.

The jury was impressed by her cinematic exhibition-making, and her engagement with ecological and existential themes through inventive forms, speculative scenarios and dynamic shifts in scale.

Tanoa Sasraku
A person with short blond hair, glasses, and a black outfit stands in front of a framed textile artwork featuring brown and beige fabrics with textured, layered details.
Tanoa Sasraku © Belinda Lawley

Tanoa Sasraku is nominated for her solo exhibition Morale Patch at the ICA in London. The installation explores geopolitical ideas through object-like sculptures, works on paper and film. The exhibition focuses on recent political and military histories of oil through a highly conceptual installation that borrows from the visual language of the corporate world.

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The jury praised the precision and sophistication of the installation, noting how it addresses complex historical issues with strong contemporary resonances, and its use of a clinical, minimalist display that conveys both irony and seriousness.

The Turner Prize 2026 jury
  • Sarah Allen, head of programme at South London Gallery
  • Joe Hill, director and chief executive of Yorkshire Sculpture Park
  • Sook-Kyung Lee, director of the Whitworth and professor of curatorial practices at the University of Manchester
  • Alona Pardo, director of the Arts Council Collection
  • Alex Farquharson, director at Tate Britain (chair)

“This year’s selection presents a rich and diverse range of work, spanning installation and performance, and with a strong emphasis on sculptural practice,” said Farquharson. “Each artist invites us into carefully constructed scenarios, both real and imagined, that offer distinct perspectives through which to explore the world around us, and to reflect on our place within it.”

Laura Sillars, the director of Mima and dean of culture and creativity at Teesside University, said: “We all look forward to working with the artists over the coming months in Middlesbrough, a place with a strong and growing cultural confidence.

“As the first Turner Prize within a university setting, this moment creates a special context, where contemporary art can inspire discussion, dialogue and new ways of thinking.”