Nnena Kalu is the winner of the 2025 Turner Prize, which awards the artist with £25,000. Nalu was chosen from a shortlist including Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami and Zadie Xa.
The 2025 jury is composed of Andrew Bonacina, independent curator; Sam Lackey, director of the Liverpool Biennial; Priyesh Mistry, associate curator of modern and contemporary projects at the National Gallery and Habda Rashid, senior curator of modern and contemporary art at the Fitzwilliam Museum. They praised Kalu’s work for its ‘powerful presence’.
Born in Glasgow and based in London, Nnena Kalu creates large-scale abstract drawings, sculptures and installations. Her sculptural work is often made of bundles of repurposed fabric, rope, parcel tape, cling film, paper and reels of VHS tapes assembled into hanging or standing shapes, while her drawings are composed of energetic repetitive lines. Since 1999, Kalu has been an artist in residence at ActionSpace studio, an organisation that supports artists with learning disabilities, in Studio Voltaire, south London.
Nnena Kalu is the first artist with a learning disability to receive the Turner Prize. ‘Nnena has faced an incredible amount of discrimination which continues to this day’, said Charlotte Hollinshead, Kalu’s studio manager and artistic facilitator who spoke on her behalf at the award ceremony. ‘Hopefully this award smashed that prejudice away’.
The work of all shortlisted artists is on view at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, through 22 February.
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