Fetishist artist on Turner Prize shortlist

Anthea Hamilton's work combines surrealism, comedy and uncompromising sexual imagery

An artist who uses sexual imagery in her surrealist work is one of the four nominees for this year's Turner Prize.

Anthea Hamilton, Michael Dean, Helen Marten and Josephine Pryde have been selected to compete for the £25,000 prize.

Hamilton has been included for her work that focuses on fetishism, while sculptor Dean was chosen for pieces made from salvaged materials.

The winner will be announced on 5 December after an exhibition of works.

Painter and sculptor Marten's art is described as "slippery and elusive" and Pryde's work shows a fascination between art and photography.

Pieces by the shortlisted artists will be shown at the Tate Britain in London from September to January.

Arts editor Will Gompertz gives his take on the shortlist

'Public debate'

The prestigious prize is awarded to a British artist, under the age of 50, considered to have put on the best exhibition of the last 12 months.

Its stated aim is to "promote public debate around new developments in contemporary art".

The Turner Prize - which was traditionally always presented at the Tate Britain - has for the last few years sought to move outside London. The exhibition, and ceremony, now travels outside the capital every other year.

In 2017, it will be presented in Hull - next year's City of Culture - but this year it will again be back in London.

About the nominees

Anthea Hamilton

Anthea Hamilton's Brick Suit shows the artist's love of comedy

Hamilton lives and works in London. She is nominated primarily for her exhibition at the SculptureCenter, New York, called Lichen! Libido! Chastity!. Her work is the most offbeat of the shortlisted artists as it brings in surrealism, comedy and uncompromising sexual imagery. One of her most notable pieces is an enormous sculpture of a man's bare buttocks.

Hamilton uses a wide range of formats for her pieces and has therefore produced sculptures, installations, performances and video.

The Tate says Hamilton brings "a surrealist sensibility to popular culture and the mind-bending proliferation of stylised and sexualised imagery in the digital world".

Michael Dean

Michael Dean's work tries to make words into a physical format

Dean is from Newcastle Upon Tyne. He is nominated for two solo shows: Sic Glyphs at South London Gallery and Qualities of Violence at de Appel arts centre in Amsterdam.

Dean is known mainly for being a sculptor and likes to makes pieces from "unnoticed" materials such as the corrugated metal on a shop-front shutter.

Dean's preoccupation and inspiration is trying to put words into a physical form through his work.

The Tate says Dean "creates work that is concerned with the physical manifestation of language" and his "vigorous sculptures and installations reference the everyday urban environment... updating the influential legacies of art after minimalism in the late 60s".

Helen Marten

Limpet Apology (traffic tenses) from Helen Marten is an example of her tableau works (Picture courtesy of the artist and Greene Naftali, New York)

Marten hails from Macclesfield and is shortlisted for a show called Eucalyptus, Let Us In at Greene Naftali in New York and a project entitled Lunar Nibs at the 56th Venice Biennale.

Marten is also known for her sculptures but she also creates tableaux.

The Tate says Marten's art is "slippery and elusive in both form and meaning: it attracts and intrigues while also resisting interpretation and categorisation".

Josephine Pryde

Lapses in Thinking by Josephine Pryde is a train which moves around the gallery space

Pryde is from Alnwick, Northumberland and is nominated for her solo show at CCA Wattis in San Francisco. She is known for her fascination with the relationship between photography and art.

One of her standout pieces was a model of a Union Pacific freight locomotive pulling two box carriages which members of the public could ride around while in the gallery in San Francisco.

The Tate says Pryde "explores the very nature of image making and display" and her work places "as much importance on the staging of the work as the images themselves".

iWonder: Is the Turner Prize worth winning?

The Turner Prize exhibition will be at Tate Britain from 27 September until 8 January 2017.