Turner Prize 2025: Nnena Kalu wins ‘historic’ victory

Nnena Kalu won this year’s Turner Prize, the UK’s most prominent art prize, for her “bold and compelling” sculptures and drawings, and has made history as the first artist with a learning disability to win.

Judges praised Kalu’s brightly colored sculptures, which are haphazardly wrapped in layers of ribbon, thread, cardstock and shiny VHS tape, and his drawings of swirling shapes that look like tornadoes.

Kalu, 59, is an autistic artist, with learning disabilities and limited verbal communication.

Charlotte Hollinshead, who has worked with her for 25 years, said on stage at the ceremony: “This is a very, very important moment for a lot of people. It’s seismic. A very strong glass ceiling has been broken.”

In a moving speech delivered alongside Kalu, he said: “This incredible lady has worked so hard for so long.

“It’s wonderful that he is finally getting the recognition he rightly deserves.”

Kalu, born in Glasgow and based in London, was announced as the winner of the award – and its £25,000 prize money – at a ceremony in Bradford, the UK’s current city of culture, on Tuesday.

She accepted the honor with a rosette with her photo and the words: “Idol, legend, winner, whatever.”

Kalu has gradually gained recognition in the art world in recent years after working as an artist in residence at Action Space, which supports artists with learning disabilities, since 1999.

Ms Hollinshead, her studio director and arts facilitator, said: “We are so happy that Nnena’s talent and beautiful work is now out in the world so everyone can see this complex artist creating beautiful, complex shapes, all while listening to disco music, often as loud as possible.

“Nnena’s career reflects the long, often very frustrating journey we have taken together… to challenge people’s preconceptions about differently abled artists, but especially about artists with learning disabilities, an important creative community so undervalued.

“When Nnena started working with Action Space in 1999, the art world was not interested.

“His work was not respected, not seen and certainly not considered great.

“Nnena has faced an incredible amount of discrimination, which continues to this day, so we hope this award destroys that prejudice.

“Nnena Kalu, you have made history!”

Kalu’s work has divided opinion among art critics, but the Turner Prize judges were impressed by the “truly convincing sculptures and drawings that only Nnena could make”, according to jury president, Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson.

His drawings, which come in sets of two or three nearly identical shapes, have “a beautiful complexity” and “look like swirling vortexes,” he said.

Meanwhile, her sculptures are hanging forms covered with reams of repurposed materials, including fabric, rope, tape, cling film, and paper.

They look like three-dimensional versions of abstract expressionist paintings, Farquharson said.

“But they’re not paintings, they’re not sitting flat on the wall. They’re suspended in the space you’re in, like rocks or brightly colored creatures.

“They are almost at your eye level. Although there is no figurative feature, they seem to be in communion with each other and with you.

“The use of materials is very unusual, including video tapes that are wound over and over again.

“The colors and lines that the materials create are very similar to brush marks translated into three dimensions. They are very gestural, very expressive and very convincing.”

The judges deliberated for two or three hours, Farquharson said, and stressed that their choice of the winner was based solely on merit.

“The result was not the desire, first and foremost, to give the award to Nnena as a neurodiverse artist. That was not a determining factor,” he said.

“It was a real interest and belief in the quality and uniqueness of her practice, which is inseparable from who she is.”

However, it is a historic moment, he told BBC News.

“It breaks down walls between, if you will, neurotypical and neurodiverse artists. It’s really about the power and quality of the work itself, whatever the identity of the artist.

“So maybe the historic thing is that it’s one more step toward including really great neurodiverse artists in the picture that we present of art today.”

The result was announced at a ceremony at Bradford Grammar School, the former school of artist David Hockney.

Works by the four shortlisted artists are currently on display in the Turner Prize exhibition at the nearby Cartwright Hall gallery, which runs until February 22, 2026.

The other nominees were Rene Matić, Zadie Xa and Mohammed Sami, who will receive £10,000 each.

The Turner Prize has been the UK’s most coveted and controversial art prize since its founding in 1984. Previous winners include Lubaina Himid, Jeremy Deller, Grayson Perry, Steve McQueen and Damien Hirst.