Hepworth Prize for Sculpture Inaugural Exhibition Features Four UK-Based Artists

The Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire launched the Hepworth Prize for Sculpture, a £30,000 biennial award for UK-based artists of any age or career stage, as an alternative to the Turner Prize. Running from 21 October to 19 February, the inaugural exhibition showcased works by shortlisted artists David Medalla, Phyllida Barlow, Steven Claydon, and Helen Marten. Medalla presented kinetic installations including Cloud Canyons (1964/2016), with foam towers and a poem adding personal depth. Barlow's untitled: screestage (2013) offered a monumental, apocalyptic landscape of painted structures. Claydon created immersive environments with decontextualized objects like mosquito traps and fluorescent lights, blending history and anthropology. Marten, who later won the Turner Prize on 5 December, displayed playful assemblages of found materials and metal partitions. The winner of the Hepworth Prize was announced on 17 November, with Marten receiving the award. The exhibition highlighted diverse sculptural practices spanning six decades, emphasizing material experimentation and narrative complexity without providing definitive interpretations.