{"id":308571,"date":"2025-12-10T09:19:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T09:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/308571\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T09:19:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T09:19:04","slug":"nnena-kalu-wins-the-turner-prize-2025-in-seismic-moment-for-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/308571\/","title":{"rendered":"Nnena Kalu wins the Turner Prize 2025 in \u2018seismic\u2019 moment for award"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IndependentCulture\"<\/p>\n

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture emailGet the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter <\/p>\n

\"IndependentCulture\"<\/p>\n

Nnena Kalu has won the 2025 Turner Prize<\/a> for her colourful cocoon-like sculptures made of VHS cassette tape and found fabric. <\/p>\n

The 59-year-old artist, who is autistic with limited verbal communication, is the first learning-disabled artist to be nominated for the prestigious award<\/a>. <\/p>\n

She received the nod for the inclusion of Drawing 21 in the group exhibition Conservation at the Walker Art<\/a> Gallery in Liverpool, as well as her works Hanging Sculpture<\/a> 1-10. <\/p>\n

Kalu\u2019s suspended sculptures are created by winding vibrant recycled materials, such as cloth, paper, and card, around lengths of flexible ducting tape. This creates \u201ca sense of joyous uplift\u201d, wrote The Independent\u2019s art critic Mark Hudson<\/a> in a review of the Turner Prize<\/a> shortlisted artists this year. <\/p>\n

The artist beat out her fellow nominees, including Mohammed Sami, whose large-scale paintings meditating on war and Iraq had made him the favourite to win. <\/p>\n

\"Installation<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Installation view of Nnena Kalu\u2019s presentation at the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford (David Levene)<\/p>\n

Magician Steven Frayne, formerly known as Dynamo, presented the prize to Kalu at a ceremony held in Bradford on Tuesday evening (9 December). She will receive \u00a325,000. <\/p>\n

Chaired by the director of Tate Britain<\/a> Alex Farquharson, the jury commended Kalu\u2019s bold and compelling work, praising her lively translation of expressive gesture into sculpture and drawing. They also noted her finesse of scale, composition and colour. <\/p>\n

Born in Glasgow to Nigerian parents, Kalu moved to London at a young age. She still lives in the city in supported care, according to a recent interview in The Guardian. <\/p>\n

Kalu works closely with her longtime studio manager and artistic facilitator, Charlotte Hollinshead, who leads the team that has been helping to support and nurture her creative endeavours since 1999. <\/p>\n

\"Kalu<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Kalu won the prize for her large-scale, cocoon-like sculptures (Tate)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nomination is phenomenal,\u201d Ms Hollinshead told The Guardian in May. \u201cIt\u2019s seismic. Someone said to me the other day, \u2018It\u2019s like someone\u2019s just thrown a bomb into the Turner prize\u2019 \u2013 and it is like that. A good bomb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alongside her sculptural work, Kalu also creates large-scale abstract drawings made with similar vigorous and rhythmic lines. <\/p>\n

Established in 1984, the Turner Prize is Britain\u2019s best-known art prize. It is awarded annually to an artist born or working in the UK for work completed over the previous year. <\/p>\n

\"Installation<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Installation view of Kalu\u2019s presentation at the Turner Prize 2025 (Courtesy of the artist, ActionSpace, London and Arcadia Missa, London \/ David Levene)<\/p>\n

This year, Kalu beat out Baghdad-born painter Sami, Korean-Canadian artist Zadie Xa, and photographer Rene Mati\u0107, who at 28 is the second-youngest artist ever to be shortlisted for the Turner. The other nominees will receive \u00a310,000 each. <\/p>\n

Sami was the favourite to win after receiving the nod for his exhibition After the Storm: Mohammed Sami at Blenheim Palace. It comprised 14 paintings that respond to Winston Churchill\u2019s birthplace and contain \u201chints and references to conflict in Iraq\u201d. <\/p>\n

The work of Korean-Canadian artist Xa falls into a mystical trend in contemporary art. \u201cMerging land and seascape in hallucinatory compositions rooted in the shamanic traditions of her Korean heritage,\u201d wrote Mark Hudson<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Mati\u0107 was the only photographer to be shortlisted for the prize. Their photographs of political demonstrations and queer subculture were influenced by their experience growing up queer and mixed-race in Peterborough. <\/p>\n

In a video that accompanies their art, Mati\u0107 \u2013 who has English, Irish and Saint Lucian heritage \u2013 describes Blackness and whiteness as being \u201cat war\u201d within their body. <\/p>\n

\"Alongside<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Alongside her sculptures, Kalu also creates large drawings using similar rhythmic lines (David Levene)<\/p>\n

On the Turner Prize 2025 jury, alongside Farquharson were independent curator Andrew Bonacina, director of Liverpool Biennial Sam Lackey, associate curator of modern and contemporary projects at the National Gallery Priyesh Mistry, and Habda Rashid, who is the senior curator of modern and contemporary art at Fitzwilliam Museum. <\/p>\n

Kalu joins a revered list of winners including sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor (1991), artist Damien Hirst (1995), filmmaker Sir Steve McQueen (1999), and Scottish artist Jasleen Kaur, whose doily-clad car helped to clinch her win last year. <\/p>\n

A group show of the 2025 shortlisted artists\u2019 work is running at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford until 22 February 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture emailGet the latest entertainment news…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-308571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}