SCULPTOR Martin Boyce was last night named the winner of this year’s Turner Prize at Gateshead’s Baltic arts centre.

The 44-year-old Glasgow-based artist, whose work includes artificial trees and a leaning litter bin, scooped the £25,000 first prize announced live on Channel 4, beating what critics felt was the strongest shortlist for many years.

The announcement of his win was gatecrashed by a streaker wearing a pink tutu, with “study this” written on his belly.

He jumped over photographers in an attempt to reach the stage and said “thank you, thank you”, as he was dragged away by two security guards.

It was the first time in the Turner Prize’s 27-year history that it had been presented at a non-Tate venue and only the second time it had been held outside London.

Boyce was presented with his prize by the celebrated photographer Mario Testino, who said: “The show tonight here at Gateshead and the Baltic is pretty interesting because the artists are all at the same level. It’s a pity that we have to announce one (winner).”

Boyce said: “It has been a brilliant year to be part of this. The Baltic is a brilliant place.

“It has been an honour and privilege to be part of that line-up.”

He explained his work as being about landscapes, adding: “It’s about passing through the space, and the space between the sculptures, as much as the sculptures themselves.”

His entry, likened to an indoor park complete with paper leaves, combined interior design and high modernism and was the bookmakers’ favourite to win.

Judges applauded his “pioneering contribution to the current interest which contemporary artists have in historic modernism, while continuing to develop and find new directions within the same vocabulary”.

Shortlisted entrants Karla Black, Hilary Lloyd and George Shaw won £5,000 each.

The Turner Prize is awarded each year to a British artist under 50 for an outstanding exhibition in the previous year.

Former winners include Gilbert and George, Antony Gormley, Damien Hirst and Chris Ofili, who used elephant dung in his paintings.

More than 120,000 people have seen the Turner Prize exhibition at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in six weeks.

The Turner exhibition will remain open until Sunday, January 8. The Baltic is open daily 10am to 6pm, except Tuesdays when the centre is open from 10.30am to 6pm. Admission is free.