Turner Prize: Nominees profiled

The Tate has announced the four artists who have been shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2008.

Runa Islam, Mark Leckey, Goshka Macuga and Cathy Wilkes are all in the running.

The exhibition of the nominees' work is returning to Tate Britain in London, after being moved to Liverpool to help to launch the city's year as European capital of culture.

RUNA ISLAM

Runa Islam, 37, is a visual artist who uses classic film devices such as lighting and colour in her art installations to get a response from her audience.

She is nominated for two solo exhibitions in Norway and a showing of her work at the Venice Biennale 2007 in Italy.

The judges said "Islam's works manage to be at once analytical and emotionally-charged, formal and socially relevant".

The artist was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, but now lives and works in London.

MARK LECKEY

Mark Leckey, 43, has been nominated for his solo exhibitions which combine sculpture, film, sound and performance.

He creates footage based on contemporary culture such as his 2005 DVD installation Drunken Bakers. This was about the drinking culture in northern England and was based on Viz comic characters.

Leckey's breakthrough film, 1999's Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, is a visual essay on the history of underground dance culture in the UK from the 1970s to the early 1990s.

He was born in Birkenhead in 1964.

GOSHKA MACUGA

Goshka Macuga makes installations which use other artists' work and other random objects.

She is described as a "cultural archaeologist who merges the roles of collector, curator and artist".

The 40-year-old is nominated for a solo exhibition at Tate Britain and her contribution to the fifth Berlin Biennial for contemporary art.

She was born in Poland in 1967.

CATHY WILKES

Cathy Wilkes was born in Belfast in 1966 but now lives and works in Glasgow.

She is nominated for her solo exhibition at Milton Keynes Gallery, which showed "her personal approach to figurative sculpture".

She uses everyday items such as widescreen TVs and modern pushchairs in her installations.

The judges said: "Through rigorous, highly-charged arrangements of commonplace objects and materials, Wilkes has developed an articulate and eloquent vocabulary that touches on issues of femininity and sexuality."

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