Artist Nnena Kalu earns ‘historic’ Turner Prize win
Nnena Kalu has won this year’s Turner Prize, the UK’s most high-profile art award, for her “bold and compelling” sculptures and drawings – and has made history as the first artist with a learning disability to win.
The judges praised Kalu’s brightly coloured sculptures – which are haphazardly wrapped in layers of ribbon, string, card and shiny VHS tape – and her drawings of swirling, tornado-like shapes.
Kalu, 59, is an autistic, learning disabled artist with limited verbal communication.
Charlotte Hollinshead, who has worked with her for 25 years, said on stage at the ceremony: “This is a major, major moment for a lot of people. It’s seismic. It’s broken a very stubborn glass ceiling.”
‘Idol, legend, winner’
In a moving speech delivered alongside Kalu, she said: “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.”
Glasgow-born, London-based Kalu 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 honour while wearing a rosette bearing her photo and the words: “Idol, legend, winner, whatever.”
Kalu has been gradually gaining recognition in the art world in recent years after working as a resident artist with Action Space, which supports artists with learning disabilities, since 1999.
Ms Hollinshead, her studio manager and artistic facilitator, said: “We are so happy that Nnena’s talent and beautiful work is now out in the world for you all to see this complex artist who creates gorgeous, complex forms – all while listening to disco music, often as loud as possible.
“Nnena’s career reflects the long, often very frustrating journey we’ve been on together… to challenge people’s preconceptions about differently abled artists, but especially learning disabled artists, an important creative community so undervalued.
“When Nnena first began working with Action Space in 1999, the art world was not interested.
“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.
“Nnena Kalu, you’ve made history!”
‘Beautiful intricacy’
Kalu’s work has divided opinion among art critics, but the Turner Prize judges were impressed by the “really compelling sculptures and drawings that could only be made by Nnena”, according to the jury chairman, Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson.
Her drawings, which come in sets of two or three near-identical shapes, have “a beautiful intricacy to them” and “look like swirling vortexes”, he said.
Her sculptures, meanwhile, are hanging shapes covered in reams of re-purposed materials including fabric, rope, parcel tape, cling film and paper.
They resemble three-dimensional versions of abstract expressionist paintings, Mr Farquharson said.
“But they’re not paintings, they’re not flat on the wall. They’re suspended in the space that you’re in, like brightly coloured rocks or creatures.
“They’re at almost your eye level. Although there are no figurative features at all, they appear to be communing among themselves and with you.
“The use of materials is highly unusual, including video tape that gets wrapped round and round.
“The colours and the lines the materials make are very like brush marks translated into three dimensions. They’re very gestural, they’re very expressive, they’re very compelling.”
‘Quality and uniqueness’
The judges deliberated for two or three hours, Mr Farquharson said, and stressed that their choice of winner was based purely on merit.
“The result wasn’t about wanting, first and foremost, to give the prize to Nnena as a neurodiverse artist. That wasn’t a driving factor,” he said.
“It was an interest in, and a real belief in, the quality and uniqueness of her practice, which is inseparable from who she is.”
It is a historic moment, though, he told BBC News.
“It breaks down walls between, if you like, neurotypical and neurodiverse artists. It becomes really about the power and quality of the work itself, whatever the artist’s identity is.
“So maybe what’s historic about it is it’s one more move to include really great neurodiverse artists in the picture 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 all four shortlisted artists are currently on show at the Turner Prize exhibition at the nearby Cartwright Hall gallery, which will run until 22 February 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 award since it was founded in 1984. Past winners include Lubaina Himid, Jeremy Deller, Grayson Perry, Steve McQueen and Damien Hirst.
