Nnena Kalu is first artist with learning disability to win Turner Prize

BRADFORD, England – Nnena Kalu, an artist who uses videotape, plastic sheeting and cardboard tubes to make brightly coloured cocoon-like sculptures, on Dec 9 won the Turner Prize, one of the art world’s most prestigious awards.

Mr Alex Farquharson, director of the Tate Britain art museum in London and chair of the prize jury in 2025, said in an interview that Kalu was the first artist with an openly discussed learning disability to receive the honour.

The decision to give Kalu the prize was trailblazing, he added, as it represented a “toppling of the wall” between disabled and non-disabled artists. However, he said Kalu received the award solely for the “sheer quality, verve and beauty” of her abstract art.

Kalu, 59, has exhibited work at the Manifesta art biennale in Barcelona, Spain, and the Kunsthall Stavanger in Norway, and has work in Tate’s collection. She has attracted attention in the art world for achieving that in spite of having autism and a learning disability with limited verbal communication.

Founded in 1984, the Turner Prize is Britain’s pre-eminent art prize, given annually to either an artist from Britain or a non-British artist who works predominantly in the country. Past winners have included film director and video artist Steve McQueen, sculptors Gilbert & George and painter Lubaina Himid.

The award, which comes with prize money of £25,000 (S$43,100), once had a reputation for creating art world stars.

Kalu, who was born to Nigerian parents in Glasgow, Scotland, started making art in the 1980s, and with ActionSpace – a non-profit based in London that helps disabled people make art – in 1999.

Ms Charlotte Hollinshead, ActionSpace’s head of artist development, said in a promotional interview for the prize that the award nomination was a huge moment not just for Kalu, but also for other people with learning disabilities.

She added that Kalu had initially made pictures by arranging blocks of colour in rows. In 2010, Kalu started making sculptures using materials like VHS tapes, coloured tape and cardboard that have grown in scope over the years. In 2013, she also started drawing large pictures with repetitive movements that resembled vortices or weather patterns.

Kalu beat

three other nominated artists

to win the prize: Mohammed Sami, an Iraqi painter who started his career making murals of late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein; Rene Matic, a photographer whose images of friends and family have been compared with the work of American photographer Nan Goldin and German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans; and Zadie Xa, a Canadian artist of Korean heritage who is known for large installations.

The award was given out in a ceremony at Bradford Grammar School in northern England, a venue close to the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, which is hosting a free exhibition of work by all four nominated artists through Feb 22.

Before the ceremony, British art critics had expressed mixed views on Kalu’s art.

Mr Waldemar Januszczak, writing in The Sunday Times of London, said her “lumpy sculpture, fashioned from brightly coloured gaffer tape and discarded bubble wrap”, was “up there with the worst art” ever nominated for the Turner Prize.

But Mr Adrian Searle, writing in The Guardian, said Kalu deserved to win the award in 2025. He likened her work to the experimental textiles of American artist Sheila Hicks and described her sculptures and drawings as “riotous and rhythmic, purposeful and compelling”. NYTIMES