Artist Nnena Kalu has become the first learning-disabled person to win the Turner Prize, following a quarter-century artistic journey rooted in Wandsworth that transformed her from an artist the world dismissed to one celebrated on contemporary art’s biggest stage.
The 59-year-old, who has autism and limited verbal communication, received the £25,000 prize at a ceremony in Bradford on Tuesday evening, with her artistic facilitator Charlotte Hollinshead saying the win “smashes prejudice away” for disabled artists who have faced discrimination for decades.
Kalu’s connection to Wandsworth runs deep. She has been a resident artist at ActionSpace’s studio in Studio Voltaire, Clapham since 1999, and Hollinshead credits the borough’s support as essential to her Turner Prize nomination. “Without Wandsworth Council, Nnena would not be nominated for a Turner Prize,” Hollinshead told Welcome to Wandsworth earlier this year.
Kalu’s winning works are large-scale abstract sculptures and drawings created through repetitive, rhythmic processes. She wraps and binds recycled materials including VHS tape, fabric, rope and cellophane into cocoon-like structures that hang from ceilings or stand as sculptural installations. Her circular drawings feature whirlpools of overlapping ink, acrylic pen and graphite.
The work is created while playing disco music “as loud as possible”, Hollinshead revealed at the award ceremony, describing Kalu as a “superstar” whose compulsive, repetitive motions transform everyday materials into powerful art. The Turner Prize jury commended her “bold and compelling work”, praising her “lively translation of expressive gesture into captivating abstract sculpture and drawing” and noting her “distinct practice and finesse of scale, composition and colour”.
The Wandsworth turning point
A transformative moment in Kalu’s practice came through Wandsworth Arts Fringe. In 2017, ActionSpace took over an empty shop at Southside Shopping Centre for the festival’s “Watch This Space” project, giving Kalu significantly more space and materials than she had previously worked with.
“That was when the 3D work really took off,” explained Sheryll, an ActionSpace facilitator, in a Tate video about Kalu’s work. “She was binding around the security features and around the blinds and everything and by the end of it, there was this amazing city that she had created.”
The project enabled Kalu to scale up from small sculptural pieces to the large, complex installations that would eventually catch international attention. She has been a regular participant at Wandsworth Arts Fringe in subsequent years and was featured in the council’s FRAMED project in 2021, which transformed high streets into outdoor gallery spaces.
ActionSpace lists Wandsworth Council among its key funders and supporters, and is actively involved in Wandsworth’s year as London Borough of Culture 2025 through its “Make it Live” programme of workshops and events.
Born in Glasgow in 1966 to Nigerian parents, Kalu moved to London at a young age. But her path to recognition has been marked by discrimination and dismissal.
“When Nnena first began working with ActionSpace in 1999, the world was not interested, her work wasn’t respected, not seen, and it certainly wasn’t regarded as cool,” Hollinshead said at the ceremony, which left attendees moved to tears. “Nnena has faced an incredible amount of discrimination, which continues to this day. Hopefully this award smashes that prejudice away.”
In the early years, people wanted to label Kalu a “student” or “participant” rather than recognising her as an artist. “We were having to persuade people that Nnena was an artist,” Hollinshead told Welcome to Wandsworth. “Not valuing what she was doing and giving her the respect that she deserves.”
The prize recognised two bodies of work: “Drawing 21”, shown at Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery, and “Hanging Sculpture 1-10”, presented at Manifesta 15 in Barcelona. Kalu beat fellow shortlisted artists Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami and Zadie Xa to the prize, with each runner-up receiving £10,000.
Alex Farquharson, chair of the Turner Prize jury and director of Tate Britain, described Kalu’s win as beginning to “erase the border between the neurotypical and neurodiverse artist”, noting it reveals how boundaries around art history and contemporary art are “dissolving”.
Lisa Slominski, curator and author of “Nonconformers: A New History of Self-taught Artists”, called Kalu’s nomination a “watershed moment”, emphasising the importance of a learning-disabled artist with limited verbal communication “being nominated and exhibiting on this level”.
The Turner Prize, established in 1984 and named after English Romantic painter J.M.W. Turner, is open to artists born or based in the UK. Previous winners include Damien Hirst, filmmaker Steve McQueen, sculptors Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley, ceramicist Grayson Perry and photographer Wolfgang Tillmans.
ActionSpace described Kalu’s victory as “long overdue” recognition, noting that disabled people make up a quarter of the population. “We hope the 2025 Turner Prize will mark a new beginning, where many more disabled artists are given the chance to shine,” the organisation said.
For Hollinshead, who has worked with Kalu for 26 years, the win represents validation of a long and often frustrating journey to challenge preconceptions about learning-disabled artists. “We know this is going to have a ripple effect both in the art world and in the learning-disabled community,” she said. “We have the next generation coming up through ActionSpace and already we are finding it’s much quicker for things to happen for them.”
The Turner Prize exhibition, featuring all four shortlisted artists, continues at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford until 22 February 2026.
