Turner prize shortlist 2012 - in pictures

Paul Noble's Hell (2009) Draughtsman Noble is best known for his large-scale drawings that are often full of surreal architecture or scatological characters Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery Photograph: Paul Noble Paul Noble's Public Toilet (1999) Noble was nominated for this year's Turner prize shortlist for his 2011 solo show at London's Gagosian Gallery, Welcome to Nobson Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery, London Photograph: Mike Bruce Welcome to Nobson installation shot at the Gagosian Gallery (2011) Noble has spent the past 16 years working on his vast drawing and sculpture project about the fictional city named Nobson. Adrian Searle names him the frontrunner: 'His art is enormously engaging, lively and peculiar. He says he has finished with Nobson, but on the basis of that alone he would deserve to win – though it's certainly not a cert' Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery Photograph: Paul Noble A photograph taken from Spartacus Chetwynd's performance piece Odd Man Out (2011) Chetwynd was nominated for the Turner prize for Odd Man Out, her twice-weekly, five-hour-long performance art piece at Sadie Coles HQ in London during May 2011. The piece was a riff on the right to vote: the actions of the performers altered depending on the audience's votes Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London Photograph: Spartacus Chetwynd A photograph from Spartacus Chetwynd's performance Odd Man Out (2011) Chetwynd is well known for off-the-wall performance pieces such as these: she dressed performers up as seals at Frieze art fair in 2010, and in 2003 she performed a piece that recast Jabba the Hutt as a lothario Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London Photograph: Spartacus Chetwynd Spartacus Chetwynd installing her work, The Folding House, at Nottingham Castle, 2010 Chetwynd, who apparently now lives and works out of a south London nudist colony, changed her first name from Lali to Spartacus in 2007 Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian A still from Elizabeth Price's film User Group Disco (2009) Film-maker Price was nominated for her show at the Baltic in Gateshead, which remains open to the public until 27 May 2012 Courtesy MOTInternational, London Photograph: Elizabeth Price A still from Elizabeth Price's film West Hinder (2012) One of the works in Price's pitch-black Baltic show was inspired by the sinking of a cargo ship in 2002 that was carrying thousands of luxury cars Courtesy MOTInternational, London Photograph: Elizabeth Price Visitors at the current Elizabeth Price exhibition at the Baltic For this video work, Price has constructed her own fictional museum Photograph: Baltic Public Expressions of Frustration (2011), photograph by Luke Fowler Film-maker Fowler is the youngest artist on this year's Turner prize shortlist, aged 34. He was shortlisted for an exhbition at Inverleith House in Edinburgh based on the life and works of psychiatry pioneer RD Laing Courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow Photograph: Luke Fowler A still from Luke Fowler's film All Divided Selves (2011) Adrian Searle says of Fowler: 'He is attracted to marginal figures and lost souls ... but Fowler's work is more than bio-pic dressed up as art. His work is atmospheric, melancholy and sometimes rather moving, whether he is using archival footage or filming new material' Courtesy of the artist, The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow and Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne and John Haynes Photograph: John Haynes