BRADFORD, England – December 10, 2025 – Glasgow-born British-Nigerian artist Nnena Kalu, aged 59, has become the first person with a learning disability to win the prestigious Turner Prize, one of the most important awards in contemporary art. The autistic artist, who has limited verbal communication, was honoured on Tuesday evening at a ceremony in Bradford – the UK’s City of Culture 2025 – for her powerful large-scale draped sculptures and mesmerising vortex-like circular drawings.
Kalu received the £25,000 prize, while the other shortlisted artists – Iraqi painter Mohammed Sami, British photographer Rene Matić, and Korean-Canadian interdisciplinary artist Zadie Xa – each received £10,000.
Joined on stage by representatives of ActionSpace, the London-based charity that has supported her as a resident artist for over 25 years, Kalu was visibly moved as Charlotte Hollinshead, ActionSpace’s head of artist development, accepted the award on her behalf. Hollinshead described the moment as historic and emotionally charged: “This amazing lady has worked so hard for such a long time – it’s wonderful she’s finally getting the recognition she rightly deserves.” She highlighted the discrimination Kalu has faced throughout her career, noting that when Kalu first joined ActionSpace in 1999, her work “wasn’t respected, not seen, and certainly wasn’t regarded as cool.” Hollinshead expressed hope that the Turner Prize victory would “smash that prejudice away.”
Born in Glasgow to Nigerian parents and raised in south London, Kalu began making art in the late 1980s. Her practice is intensely physical and repetitive: she starts with a tightly packed core of paper and textiles wrapped in cellophane and tape, then compulsively layers colourful fabric strips, ropes, yarn, and even the magnetic ribbon from old VHS cassettes. The resulting cocoon-like sculptures are often suspended in clusters, creating dramatic, nest-like installations that dominate entire rooms.
Around 2013, Kalu also developed her distinctive circular drawings – dense, swirling compositions built up in ink, acrylic pen, graphite, or oil pastel, frequently shown in pairs or triptychs. The Turner Prize jury specifically praised “Drawing 21” and the ten monumental “Hanging Sculpture 1–10” pieces that Kalu created for Manifesta 15, the European nomadic biennale held this year in Barcelona. The jury described her work as “bold and compelling,” applauding her “lively translation of expressive gesture into captivating abstract sculpture and drawing” and her remarkable command of scale, colour, and composition.
Despite a career spanning more than three decades, Kalu only began receiving significant institutional and commercial attention in the last few years. Her first major solo exhibition took place in Glasgow in 2018, followed by a breakthrough London show at Arcadia Missa gallery in 2024, which now represents her. In 2025 she presented her first large institutional solo exhibition, “Creations of Care,” at Kunsthall Stavanger in Norway, and works by her entered the Tate’s permanent collection.
Curator and author Lisa Slominski, whose book Nonconformers: A New History of Self-Taught Artists was published earlier this year, called Kalu’s nomination and victory a “watershed moment.” She stressed the importance of a learning-disabled, largely non-verbal artist exhibiting and winning at this level, while cautioning against viewing the work solely through the lens of disability.
The Turner Prize exhibition, currently on view at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford’s Lister Park until 22 February 2026, has already attracted over 34,000 visitors since opening in September. Kalu’s installations and drawings have proved particularly popular, with many visitors describing the experience of standing among her suspended sculptures as immersive and joyful.
Reaction across social media and in the press has been overwhelmingly celebratory, with many highlighting Kalu’s Nigerian heritage alongside her achievement. Disability arts organisations have hailed the win as long overdue and transformative, predicting it will open doors for other learning-disabled and neurodivergent artists worldwide.
For Kalu herself, who communicates primarily through her art and the rhythmic, almost musical process of making it – often to a soundtrack of disco music in the studio – the Turner Prize represents not only personal vindication after decades of being overlooked, but a powerful statement that artistic excellence can emerge from any mind, in any body, using any voice.
