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Martin Creed
Shortlisted: 2001

Creed works with paper, music, air, light or text to create a systematic series of comically slight yet earnest works. None of his works have titles; they are identified only by numbers, so each piece is added to Creed's system with equal status, regardless of its size, or what it is made of. A subversive wit is present in all his works; for the Turner Prize exhibition of 2001 he showed Work No.227: The lights going on and off, manipulating the gallery's existing light fittings to create an unexpected effect.

Martin Creed was born in Wakefield and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1986 to 1990. In 2001 he won the Turner Prize for his solo exhibitions at Southhampton City Art Gallery, Leeds City Art Gallery, Bluecoat Art Gallery, Camden Arts Centre and Art Now: Martin Creed, held at Tate Britain. These shows demonstrated 'the rigour and purity of his work and its characteristic mixture of seriousness and humour.'

This information has been taken from The Turner Prize: Twenty Years, by Virginia Button, Tate Publishing, 2003.

View Martin Creed in the Tate Collection