Artist Nnena Kalu Wins 2025 Turner Prize

"Artist Nnena Kalu, whose hanging sculptures and life-sized drawings channel the gentle rhythmic energy of nests and cocoons, is the winner of the 2025 Turner Prize, Tate Britain announced today, December 9. She is the first artist with a learning disability to secure the coveted £25,000 (~$33,250) prize, reported the , which broadcast tonight's award ceremony live from Bradford, the British government's selected 2025 City of Culture."

"Born in Glasgow in 1966 to Nigerian parents, Kalu lives and works in London, where she has been an artist-in-residence at ActionSpace, an organization that hosts artists with disabilities, for the past 25 years. The 59-year-old artist typically works by wrapping, coiling, and knotting pieces of fabric, rope, and even magnetic tape from VHS cassettes around a tube or other framework, achieving spirals, spools, and coils in sculptures that are both familiar and improvisational."

Nnena Kalu won the 2025 Turner Prize and became the first artist with a learning disability to receive the £25,000 prize. Four artists were shortlisted—Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa—with the three runners-up each awarded £10,000. An exhibition of the shortlisted works is on view at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford until February 22. Born in Glasgow in 1966 to Nigerian parents, Kalu lives in London and has been an artist-in-residence at ActionSpace for 25 years. Kalu builds sculptures by wrapping, coiling, and knotting fabric, rope, and VHS tape into spirals and coils and produces circular drawings in pen, graphite, and pastels. Two works, "Drawing 21" (2021) and "Hanging Sculpture 1 to 10" (2024), earned the Turner nomination. Charlotte Hollinshead spoke on Kalu's behalf at the award ceremony and noted Kalu has limited verbal communication.

Read at Hyperallergic