Turner Prize 2008 artists: Mark Leckey

Desire and transformation are key motifs in Mark Leckey’s work, returning repeatedly in a variety of manifestations. His own state of being – an artist in London, a participant in contemporary culture, and a man who grew up in the 1980s in the north of England – is used as a construct through which he can investigate these forces. His wide-ranging and multi-disciplinary practice combines sculpture, film, sound and performance. He celebrates the imagination of the individual, and our potential to inhabit, reclaim or animate an idea, a space, or an object.

Mark Leckey was born in Birkenhead in 1964 and graduated from Newcastle Polytechnic in 1990. He has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally and has recently had solo exhibitions at Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2007); Le Consortium, Dijon (2007); Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne (2007) Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York (2006) and Cabinet, London (2005). Leckey has contributed to numerous group shows including Pale Carnage, Arnolfini, Bristol (2007); Music is a Better Noise, PS1 Centre for Contemporary Art, New York (2006); Tate Triennial for Contemporary Art, Tate Britain (2006) and British Art Show 6, BALTIC, Gateshead (2005). He is currently professor of film studies at Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main and was a founding member of the musical collectives Donateller and Jack too Jack.