It's Turner Prize Time Again? Time to Break out the Soap.

The shortlist of 4 artists up for the Turner Prize, the annual art award sponsored by the Tate Gallery that is given to a young (under 50) artist each December, was announced last week. For a bit about the history of the Turner Prize, check out Reuters or the Financial Times' perspective.

For those of you too lazy to make the jump, the Turner Prize is notorious for generating all kinds of controversy and its attendant contemporary art: from Damien Hirst's pickled cow and shark in formaldehyde (comparatively tame given that "head made of ice covered in Hirst's own blood" work he did a few years back) to Tracey Emin's filthy sheets, condoms included, to The Chapman Brother's bronze sex doll and dildo combo to...well, don't get me started on Chris Ofili and the elephant dung.

The work of this year's round of 4 is short on the animal parts, performance art, and used prophylactics, which may or may not be linked to the fact that this year's prize--for the first time in 23 years--is being held at Tate Liverpool, not Tate London. If you want to take a gander at the work of this year's shortlist nominees (Zarina Bhimji, Nathan Coley, Mike Nelson and Mark Wallinger), click here. All the work looks promising, if not the most sanitary art the Turner Prize Awards have seen in the last decade.