SHORTLIST FOR 2011 TURNER PRIZE

How English is the Turner Prize? Well, the Guardian headlined its report in gnomic Britishese: "Humbrol enamels versus bath bombs and lipsticks."

At any rate, the shortlisted artists for the 2011 Turner Prize are Karla Black, Martin Boyce, Hilary Lloyd and George Shaw, and the exhibition this year -- bound to make it somewhat less exciting -- is at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, which is on England’s northeast coast.

Two of the finalists are painters, Shaw and Black, the first of whom is known for landscapes painted in enamel paint, and the second for using lipstick, bath bombs (roundish lumps of bath salts) and various cosmetics as art materials (according to the Guardian). Lloyd makes videos, and Boyce, perhaps the best known of the bunch in the U.S., is a sculptor who shows his witty, postmodernist works at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Chelsea. Winner of the Turner Prize is due to be announced on Dec. 5, 2011. [Image: Detail from a work by Karla Black]

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