Helen Marten has won the first Hepworth Prize for Sculpture of £30,000, which was announced yesterday evening (17 November) at the Hepworth Wakefield museum in West Yorkshire. The young artist was selected for the award from a shortlist including Phyllida Barlow, Steven Claydon and David Medalla.
“There are so many thanks to be said for so many people. Steve [Claydon], Phyllida [Barlow], David [Medalla], it’s an absolute honour to be shown alongside you”, said Marten as she took the stage to accept the award.
“Helen Marten is one of the strongest and most singular voices working in British art today,” said Simon Wallis, the director of the Hepworth Wakefield and chair of the judging panel. “Her refined craft and intellectual precision address our relationship to objects and materials in a digital age,” Wallis said. According to a press statement, the new prize is awarded to a “British or UK-based artist of any age, at any stage in their career, who has made a significant contribution to the development of contemporary sculpture”.
Following her win, Marten said in an interview with the BBC’s Will Gompertz that she was "excited and deeply grateful" just to have been shortlisted. She added: “I would propose to share the prize equally between all four of us. I hope they will accept.”
London-based Marten was born in 1985 in Macclesfield, and has had one of the most successful years of her career to date. As well as winning the Hepworth Prize for Sculpture, she has been nominated for the Turner Prize, which will be announced on 5 December, and has a solo exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery (until 20 November).
The Hepworth Prize for Sculpture judging panel was made up of Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, the director of GAM and Castello di Rivoli museums in Turin; David Chipperfield, the architect and designer of The Hepworth Wakefield; Sheikha Hoor al-Qasimi, the president of the Sharjah Art Foundation; Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, the president of The Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo; and the art critic and broadcaster Alastair Sooke.
• For more on this story, see Foam machines, scented curtains and cherry pips feature in first Hepworth Prize for Sculpture show