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Who is Nnena Kalu, the first artist with learning disability to win Turner Prize?

Kalu's Turner Prize win not just makes a case for art as a solid medium of expression but also is a step towards blurring the distinctions between the neurotypical and neurodiverse artist

3 min readNew DelhiDec 10, 2025 05:26 PM IST

Nnena Kalu (right) was announced as the winner of the Turner Prize 2025 at a ceremony at Bradford Grammar School, in Bradford, England, on Tuesday. (Photo: AP)

Artist Nnena Kalu on Tuesday became the first artist with a learning disability to win the acclaimed Turner Prize.

Kalu, who is autistic with limited verbal communication, won the prize for her cocoon-like sculptures, which she makes by twisting, swirling and knotting found fabric and VHS tape. She came up on the Turner committee’s radar after she exhibited one such sculptural installation at Manifesta 15, the European Nomadic Biennial, in Barcelona last year, leading to her nomination for the £25,000 prize earlier this year.

Kalu’s Turner Prize win not just makes a case for art as a solid medium of expression but also is a step towards blurring the distinctions between the neurotypical and neurodiverse artist.

What the award means

Charlotte Hollinshead, Kalu’s studio manager and artistic facilitator, who delivered the acceptance speech on behalf of the 59-year-old artist, said the win was “seismic” and would hopefully help “smash the prejudice” Kalu has faced throughout her life.

While Kalu’s work is often discussed within the context of neurodivergent art practices, but her style is extremely contemporary — in the way it engages the body, the materials she uses or the performative nature of the sheer act of making the sculptures, where her process becomes as important as the final piece. Her works recall the groundbreaking practices of artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Sheila Hicks and more recently, Sagarika Sundaram. But it is the most contemporary in the way it challenges the traditional notion of what comprises art. Even her drawings, electric and repetitive, her whirlpooling swirls tend to have an invisible but potent impact of drawing the viewer in.

The Turner Prize win is a step towards blurring these distinctions. Alex Farquharson, chair of the jury noted that Kalu’s win “begins to erase that border between the neurotypical and neurodiverse artist”, but her work was selected “very much for its quality”.

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How Kalu broke into the art scene

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Kalu was born in Glasgow in 1966 to Nigerian parents, but moved soon after to London, which has been her home since. Her visible artistic instincts were nurtured at ActionSpace, an organisation that supports artists with learning disabilities, providing access to creative studios. Hollinshead, who works at ActionSpace, has been by Kalu’s side since 1999.

Kalu broke onto the global art scene with a group show in Belgium in 2016, which was followed by participation in the Glasgow International two years later. Although she has been practising art for over four decades, she had a solo show with a commercial gallery only in 2024 at Arcadia Missa in London, followed quickly by her institutional solo — Creations of Care — at Kunsthall Stavanger in Norway.

Established in 1984 and named after English painter JMW Turner, the Turner Prize is an annual recognition awarded to a British artist — an artist working primarily in Britain or an artist born in Britain working globally.