Nnena Kalu ‘makes history’ by winning Turner Prize 2025

By Oscar Holland, CNN

(CNN) — A British Nigerian artist who produces large-scale draped sculptures and vortex-like circular drawings has become the first person with a learning disability to claim the Turner Prize, one of contemporary art’s most prestigious accolades.

Glasgow-born Nnena Kalu, is a learning-disabled artist with autism and limited verbal communication, was awarded the prize — previously won by prominent figures like Damien Hirst and filmmaker Steve McQueen — at a ceremony in Bradford, UK, on Tuesday.

Kalu took the stage and was joined by two representatives from ActionSpace, a charity whose studio appointed her as resident artist more than 25 years ago.

Addressing the audience on the 59-year-old’s behalf, the London-based organization’s head of artist development and Kalu’s studio manager, Charlotte Hollinshead, said she had “made history.”

“This amazing lady has worked so hard for such a long time — it’s wonderful she’s finally getting the recognition she rightly, rightly deserves,” Hollinshead said, referencing the various challenges Kalu has faced in her art career.

“When Nnena first began working with ActionSpace in 1999, the art world was not interested,” she added. “Her work wasn’t respected, not seen and certainly wasn’t regarded as cool. Nnena has faced an incredible amount of discrimination, which continues to this day, so hopefully this award smashes that prejudice away.”

Having long created two-dimensional artworks, Kalu began making her signature sculptures around 15 years ago. They usually begin with looped or tubular structures, or cocoon-like bundles of textiles and paper, tightly packed in cellophane and tape. She then builds the artworks — often through compulsive, repetitive motions — by wrapping, binding and layering various materials, from ropes and colorful strips of fabric to the ribbon-like magnetic tape found inside VHS cassettes.

Around 2013, Kalu also began creating distinctive circular drawings — whirlpools of overlapping ink, acrylic pen, graphite or oil pastel that are frequently presented as diptychs and triptychs.

The Turner Prize specifically recognized Kalu for “Drawing 21,” part of a group exhibition in Liverpool, UK, and her works “Hanging Sculpture 1-10,” which were presented at Manifesta, a prestigious cultural biennale held this year in Barcelona, Spain.

The jury, which comprised five respected curators and museum officials, saw Kalu’s work as “bold and compelling,” according to a press release from award organizers. The jurors also noted her “lively translation of expressive gesture into captivating abstract sculpture and drawing” and “her distinct practice and finesse of scale, composition and color.”

Kalu held her first solo exhibition in Glasgow in 2018, but, despite her lengthy art-making career, only began making commercial inroads after exhibiting at London’s Arcadia Missa last year. She has since appointed the gallery as her official representative.

In an Instagram post, Arcadia Missa described Kalu’s victory as a “moment of recognition” that will “undoubtedly contribute to the discourse and culture over the years to come.”

Established in 1984, and open to artists born or based in the UK, the Turner Prize is named after the English Romantic painter J.M.W. Turner. The award arguably hit the peak of its cultural relevance in the 1990s, when it was won by Hirst and McQueen, as well as acclaimed sculptors Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley. Other high-profile winners include ceramicist Grayson Perry and German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans.

In a video about Kalu’s work produced by British gallery group Tate ahead of the ceremony, Lisa Slominski, a curator and author of “Nonconformers: A New History of Self-taught Artists,” described Kalu’s nomination as a “watershed moment.”

“It’s incredibly important that a learning-disabled artist with limited verbal communication has been nominated and is exhibiting on this level — like at Manifesta — being written about, being published about,” she said. “But at the same time, I think it’s very important that we don’t limit her work and her practice to a disability lens only.”

Elsewhere on the four-person shortlist, artworks spanned subject matter and media, including painting, sculpture, sound and installation art. Mohammed Sami, an Iraq-born artist who exhibited autobiographical paintings at the UK’s storied Blenheim Palace, had been considered by many — including British bookmakers — to be the frontrunner. The other nominees were photographer Rene Matić and Korean Canadian artist Zadie Xa.

Kalu will be awarded £25,000 ($33,000) for her win, while the other shortlisted artists all receive prizes of £10,000 ($13,000).

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