Arts & Entertainment

Sculptor Veronica Ryan wins Turner Prize

London, Dec 7 (EFE).- Sculptor Veronica Ryan was announced Wednesday as the winner of the 2022 Turner Prize, the United Kingdom’s most prestigious award in contemporary art, for a work honoring the contributions of Caribbean immigrants.

At 66, the Montserrat-born Ryan is the oldest artist to receive the prize, which is accompanied by 25,000 pounds ($30,524).

“Thank you so much,” she said as she accepted the award during a ceremony at St. George’s Hall in Liverpool. “I’m wearing my dad’s hat, my dad would be so pleased, he called me big eyes when I was little. That’s fabulous. Thank you mummy and daddy. All my family.”

The sculptor’s family were part of what is known as the Windrush generation: people from Caribbean countries who immigrated to the UK between 1948 and 1971.

The generation took its name from the ship MV Empire Windrush, which arrived in Britain on June 22, 1948, carrying Caribbean workers recruited to alleviate post-war labor shortages.

Ryan’s Windrush installation, inaugurated last year in the London borough of Hackney, comprises three bronze and marble sculptures of Caribbean fruits: Custard Apple (Annonaceae), Breadfruit (Moraceae) and Soursop (Annonaceae).

The Turner Prize jury praised Ryan for the “personal and poetic way she extends the language of sculpture.”

The jury also had warm words for Ryan’s solo exhibition Along a Spectrum, hailing the “exquisite sensuality and tactility” of pieces that touch on the environment, history, dislocation and the psychological impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Making the Turner short list along with Ryan were Ingrid Pollard, Heather Phillipson and Sin Wai Kin. EFE

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