Can this Scot earn his stripes in the Turner?

THE work range of Scottish artist Nathan Coley has run from serving as "unofficial artist" at the Lockerbie bombing trial to rendering all 286 of Edinburgh's churches and mosques in scale models made of cardboard. His art has won him growing prominence in Scotland and overseas, and his career moved up a notch yesterday with the news that he is one of four nominees for the Turner Prize.

The Turner Prize was established in 1984, with the sum of £25,000 going to the winner and of £5,000 to each of the other shortlisted artists. It is awarded to a British artist under 50 for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work over the year.

The charges levelled against the Turner have been that it is ridiculous, knee-jerk controversial or just plain dull. But yesterday's line-up looked more formidable, interesting, and politically alive than many, including last year's lacklustre cluster, which saw the German abstract painter Tomma Abts win the prize.

State Britain, a replica of an anti-war protester's peace camp in London's Parliament Square, was the single work that got Essex-born artist Mark Wallinger on the shortlist. At Tate Britain, he staged a meticulous reconstruction of 600 weather-beaten banners, flags and placards erected by Brian Haw. Haw's originals had been removed by police in 2006 under a new law criminalising protest within a kilometre of Parliament Square - and part of the exhibition broke that law.

The photographer and film-maker Zarina Bhimji was shortlisted for her pictures of Uganda, from where she was exiled under the rule of brutal dictator Idi Amin. Her work is often seen as an exploration of loss - her photographs show deserted buildings, empty interiors, and vacant outside spaces.

The artist Mike Nelson will be judged on Amnesian Shrine, an extraordinary structure made of wood and chickenwire. Nelson is also cited for a striking work he showed at London's Frieze Art Fair, Mirror Infil. He constructed a photographic darkroom between galleries to make a "secret space" where visitors had to find a doorway. The choice reflects the Frieze fair's growing influence.

Coley and Bhimji, as relative newcomers, face formidable competition. Both Nelson and Wallinger have been nominated for the Turner before, and were installed as favourites yesterday. However, Coley was undeterred. "I'm excited," he said, "I think the shortlist of artists is really good, I think all four of us are working internationally and dealing with serious global ideas and that's interesting. It's going to be a good show."

Coley is cited for his solo show of last summer, the neon sign with the declaration, "There Will Be No Miracles Here", at Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute. His work in a British Council exhibition in Belgrade, which included a reproduction of the Lockerbie trial witness box, was also mentioned.

He said he was delighted to get the nomination, which came "out of the blue": "It's prestigious and I think people look to it as a barometer of what's going on." His earlier work includes a photograph of himself cross-legged on a bench at Holyrood in front of the empty Parliament site, titled Waiting for the Scottish Parliament. The same wry humour comes across in other work.

He can claim one clear supporter among the judges: the director of Edinburgh's Fruitmarket Gallery, Fiona Bradley, who showed a solo exhibition of his works soon after her arrival at the gallery.

Based in Glasgow, he has a solo festival show at the doggerfisher Gallery in Edinburgh this summer. "It's brilliant news," said the gallery director, Susanna Beaumont.

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art has his Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship in Edinburgh. A massive light installation will be shown in St Andrew Square from mid-May as part of the Six Cities Design Festival.

In a break with tradition, the Turner shortlist was announced at Tate Liverpool, which will stage the Turner Prize exhibition in October, and where the prize will be awarded in December. The Turner was moved to Liverpool as a "curtain-raiser" for the city's Capital of Culture year in 2008.

The art critic and juror Michael Bracewell described Wallinger's State Britain as "a work of incredible, epic proportion" which "puts you right in the gravitational field and the emotional field of the loneliness of protest".

He said of Bhimji: "Her subject matter is the homeland she left. She photographs it and films it in a way that somehow manages to balance the deeply romantic imagery with a strong sense of portent, of disquiet, of melancholy."

Journalist Miranda Sawyer, another juror, said Coley's Camouflage Church and Camouflage Mosque pieces, models of religious buildings "camouflaged" in gaudy stripes, and his neon sign on Bute, highlighted the conflict between religious and state authorities. "This makes you think about the struggle between church and state, and how the state is telling us not to be religious."

Bracewell said: "It wasn't our intention to create a political list. It was an exceptionally strong year and we considered greatly different artists. It just happened that these artists made the strongest impact."

NATHAN COLEY

Born in Glasgow in 1967 and graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1989.

In 2001 he won a Creative Scotland Award, and was an unofficial artist in residence at the Hague for the Lockerbie bombing trial in 2002. In 2004, he staged his Fruitmarket show, Lamp of Sacrifice, with cardboard models of all 286 places of worship in the Edinburgh Yellow Pages.

The judges cited Coley for shows at Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute and in Belgrade, and the installation Camouflage Church in Santiago de Compostela, above left.

MARK WALLINGER

Born in 1959 in Chigwell, Mark Wallinger was nominated for the Turner Prize 12 years ago, partly for his painting Half-Brother. A student at Chelsea School of Art and Goldsmiths College, he has also represented Britain at the Venice Biennale.

Wallinger qualified for the Turner Prize with his politically charged solo exhibition State Britain, above. "His powerful installation demonstrates art's unique ability to engage with contemporary political issues," the Turner panel said.

ZARINA BHIMJI

Born in Mbarara, Uganda, in 1963, Bhimji lives and works in London. Her family fled Uganda in 1974, when she was 11, part of the tide of Ugandan Asians driven from the country by Idi Amin.

She finished her art studies at the prestigious Slade School of Art in London in 1987, and has recently held solo shows from Leeds to London and New York.

She is nominated for her solo shows at the Haunch of Venison galleries featuring her photographs from Uganda, left.

MIKE NELSON

Was nominated for his solo installation Amnesian Shrine, or Double coop displacement, right, at Matt's Gallery in London. He was also cited for his "immersive installation" Mirror Infill at the Frieze Art Fair, London.

Born in Loughborough, Nelson was a top contender for the 2001 Turner Prize, but lost out then to Scottish artist Martin Creed. The judges said his "immersive installations transport the viewer to imaginary yet plausible worlds".