Turner Prize 2026 Exhibition Opens at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art with Four Shortlisted Artists

The 42nd edition of the Turner Prize exhibition is on view at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), featuring shortlisted artists Simeon Barclay, Kira Freije, Marguerite Humeau, and Tanoa Sasraku. All are UK-born except French-born, London-based Humeau, and each was selected for a recent solo exhibition or performance. The winner will be announced in December. Humeau's Torches presents a white elephant in death throes beside a glass heart, overseen by three figurines, with blown glass orbs and a soundscape; a nearby honeycomb tree and organic forms explore cellular, celestial, and conscious intelligence. Sasraku's Morale Patch includes a suit-patterned paper saturated with raw pigment from Ghana and Cornwall, a plinth with velvet-lined trays holding acetate paperweights of crude oil samples, and works on paper referencing military ribbon mounts named for oil-related operations like Desert Shield and Enduring Freedom. Barclay's The Ruin transforms a spoken-word performance about his working-class Caribbean upbringing in Huddersfield into an immersive scaffolding structure with a film referencing the M62 motorway, balloons, and a cosy screening room. Freije's Unspeak the Chorus features welded metal figures with aluminium-cast extremities and expressive faces, mirrored walls with stage lights, mist, and a backstage atmosphere. The exhibition opened this autumn and runs at MIMA.