North Stars

Each year, the Carnegie Art Award nominates the best in Nordic painting by shortlisting 25 artists from each of the Nordic countries. Underlining the fact that Nordic painting must be in a pretty healthy state, the prize will be presented biannually from this autumn.

A few of the names may be familiar to us already: Finnish photographer Elina Brotherus was shortlisted for the Citibank Photography Prize in 2002, Norwegian video artist A K Dolven had a major solo show at the South London Gallery just over a year ago.

And earlier this month, Lars Arrhenius's storyboard, following the everyday tribulations of a universal stick man, was the best thing at Victoria Miro's group show, Rijksakademie.

Clearly, not all the shortlisted artists are painters; the prize, in fact, extends slightly beyond this remit to award artists whose 'work relates to painterly issues, rather than to the technique itself'. However, this time the winner and the two runners-up are both painters.

Danish artist Troels Wˆrsel bags the £36,000 top prize for his clever text paintings, painted on the back of the canvas with clear instructions for hanging.

A regular nominee, Swede Lena Cronqvist gets the £21,000 second prize for her compelling little psychodramas involving a deranged-looking female, often seen holding an infant whose features and clothes resemble those of a middle-aged man. The third prize of £14,000 goes to Dane Tal R, whose deceptively simple works show an excellent eye for colour.

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