LONDON, ENGLAND.- The Turner Prize 2006 has been awarded to Tomma Abts, it was announced at Tate Britain this evening. The £25,000 prize, sponsored by the makers of Gordon’s gin, was presented by Yoko Ono. With Gordon’s support this year’s prize fund is £40,000 with £25,000 going to the winner and £5,000 each for the other shortlisted artists. The event was broadcast live on Channel 4 News.

Tomma Abts was shortlisted for her solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland, and greengrassi, London. Abts’s densely worked canvases take shape through a gradual process of layering and bear the visible traces of their making. The jury admired the rigor and consistency of Abts’s painting, in which compelling images reveal their complexity slowly over time.

The jury stressed the strength of the exhibition at Tate Britain and wished to record their admiration for the outstanding presentations produced by all four artists.

The Turner Prize 2006 is awarded to a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of his or her work in the twelve months preceding 9 May 2006. (The term British applies to all artists working in the United Kingdom and to British-born artists who may be working abroad.) The Prize was established in 1984 by the Patrons of New Art and is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art. The shortlisted artists for 2006 were: Tomma Abts, Phil Collins, Mark Titchner and Rebecca Warren.

The members of the Turner Prize 2006 Jury were: Lynn Barber, writer, The Observer; Margot Heller, Director, South London Gallery; Matthew Higgs, Director and Chief Curator, White Columns, New York; Andrew Renton, writer and Director of Curating, Goldsmiths College and Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate and Chairman of the Jury.

Previous winners are: 1984 Malcolm Morley; 1985 Howard Hodgkin; 1986 Gilbert & George; 1987 Richard Deacon; 1988 Tony Cragg; 1989 Richard Long; 1990 (Prize suspended); 1991 Anish Kapoor; 1992 Grenville Davey; 1993 Rachel Whiteread; 1994 Antony Gormley; 1995 Damien Hirst; 1996 Douglas Gordon; 1997 Gillian Wearing; 1998 Chris Ofili; 1999 Steve McQueen; 2000 Wolfgang Tillmans; 2001 Martin Creed; 2002 Keith Tyson; 2003 Grayson Perry; 2004 Jeremy Deller; 2005 Simon Starling.

The Turner Prize will be held at Tate Liverpool in 2007 in the run up to Liverpool’s year of celebrations as European Capital of Culture in 2008. In its place next autumn, Tate Britain will present an exhibition which celebrates the history of the Turner Prize over the last twenty-three years. This will be the first time the Turner Prize has been held outside London since it began in 1984. The exhibition of four shortlisted artists will take place at the Albert Dock galleries from 19 October 2007 – 13 January 2008. The Turner Prize will return to Tate Britain in 2008.