Spartacus Chetwynd, Luke Fowler, Paul Noble and Elizabeth Price are the four nominees for this year's Turner Prize, announced today 1 May 2012.

Chetwynd is a performer, Fowler works in film and photography, Noble creates technical drawings and Price presents video installations. 

Britain's most respected annual art prize, the Turner awards £25,000 to the year's most outstanding British artist aged under 50 years of age for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding,

Work by the shortlisted artists will be shown in an exhibition at Tate Britain, opening on October 2.

The winner will be announced at a ceremony on December 3.

Over the recent decades the Turner Prize has played a significant role in provoking debate about visual art and the growing public interest in contemporary British art in particular, and has become widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe. 

Last year the prize went to Martin Boyce and previous winners include Howard Hodgkin, Anish Kapoor and Grayson Perry. The award has also seen some unexpected results: Tracey Emin's My Bed (pictured), was overlooked in 1999 despite drawing large crowds to the Tate.

The Chapman brothers lost out to Grayson Perry in 2003 – Perry accepted the award dressed as a girl while Jake Chapman described "losing the Turner prize to a grown man dressed as a small girl" as his "most embarrassing moment".