A Kiwi of Fijian and European heritage has been nominated for the Turner Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious art awards.
Luke Willis Thompson is in the running for the award that was established in the United Kingdom in 1984 and is worth around $50,000 to the winning artist.
Each year, four artists are nominated, who are British or predominantly working in the UK, for their outstanding exhibition or contribution from the previous year.
Thompson's installation Autoportrait 2017, also nominated for the 2018 Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation Prize, was commissioned by and first shown at Chisenhale Gallery, London.
Thompson, the University of Auckland Young Alumnus of the Year for 2018 and a graduate of the Elam School of Fine Arts, is the first artist from the Pacific region, since Boyd Webb in 1988 to be nominated for the Turner Prize.
He previously won New Zealand's largest art award in 2014, the Walters Prize, with a work that featured his family's suburban home. At just 25, he was the award's youngest recipient.
In addition to the Turner Prize, the four nominated artists are included in an exhibition, which this year will be at Tate Britain in London.
That exhibition is a major event on the international arts calendar and in the past has frequently been the subject of considerable comment and debate.
The winner of the Turner Prize will be announced on December 4 2018.
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