A British Nigerian artist has claimed the Turner Prize, one of contemporary art’s most prestigious accolades, becoming the first person with a learning disability to win the award.

 

 

 

 

 

Glasgow-born Nnena Kalu, an artist with autism and limited verbal communication, was recognized for her powerful, large-scale draped sculptures and distinctive vortex-like circular drawings. She was awarded the prize, previously won by figures like Damien Hirst and Steve McQueen at a ceremony in Bradford, UK, on Tuesday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kalu, 59, was joined on stage by representatives from ActionSpace, a charity that appointed her as a resident artist over 25 years ago. Speaking on her behalf, ActionSpace’s head of artist development, Charlotte Hollinshead, declared that Kalu had “made history.”

 

 

 

“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,” Hollinshead said. She referenced the historic discrimination Kalu has faced, noting that when Kalu began working with ActionSpace in 1999, “Her work wasn’t respected, not seen and certainly wasn’t regarded as cool.”

 

 

 

 

Hollinshead expressed hope that the award would “smash that prejudice away.”

 

 

 

 

 

Kalu initially created two-dimensional artworks but began making her signature sculptures about 15 years ago.

 

 

These complex pieces are often started with a looped structure or cocoon-like bundle of textiles and paper, tightly packed in cellophane and tape.

 

 

 

Kalu then builds the artworks through compulsive, repetitive motions—wrapping, binding, and layering materials like ropes, colorful fabric strips, and even the ribbon-like magnetic tape from VHS cassettes.

 

 

 

 

 

Around 2013, she also started creating her distinctive circular drawings, whirlpools of overlapping ink, acrylic pen, graphite, or oil pastel, frequently presented in pairs or triptychs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Turner Prize specifically recognized Kalu for “Drawing 21” and her works “Hanging Sculpture 1-10,” which were presented at Manifesta, the prestigious cultural biennale held this year in Barcelona, Spain.

 

 

 

 

 

The jury commended Kalu’s work as “bold and compelling,” noting her “lively translation of expressive gesture into captivating abstract sculpture and drawing” and her “distinct practice and finesse of scale, composition and color.”

 

 

 

 

 

Despite a lengthy career, Kalu only began making significant commercial inroads last year after exhibiting at London’s Arcadia Missa, which is now her official representative. In a post, the gallery described the victory as a “moment of recognition” that will contribute greatly to the cultural discourse in the years to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa Slominski, a curator and author of Nonconformers: A New History of Self-taught Artists, described Kalu’s nomination as a “watershed moment” in a video produced by Tate.

 

 

 

 

“It’s incredibly important that a learning-disabled artist with limited verbal communication has been nominated and is exhibiting on this level,” she said. Slominski added, however, that it is also important not to “limit her work and her practice to a disability lens only.”

 

 

 

 

Kalu will receive £25,000 for her win, while the other shortlisted artists, Mohammed Sami, Rene Matić, and Zadie Xa each receive £10,000.