Indian-origin artist wins Turner Prize: ‘Weaves personal, political, spiritual’

At 38, Kaur was the youngest nominee for this year’s award that includes a cash prize of £25,000. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the prize. The other shortlisted artists included Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson and Delaine Le Bas.

4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Dec 5, 2024 07:31 AM IST

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Jasleen Kaur at the award ceremony in London. (David Parry/PA Media Assignments)

Indian-origin Scottish artist Jasleen Kaur has won the prestigious Turner Prize 2024 for her exhibition, “Alter Altar”, that reflects on plurality, personal and political themes.

The jury — chaired by Alex Farquharson, Director, Tate Britain — praised “the considered way in which Kaur weaves together the personal, political and spiritual… choreographing a visual and aural experience that suggests both solidarity and joy”. It also highlighted Kaur’s “ability to gather different voices through unexpected and playful combinations of material”.

At 38, Kaur was the youngest nominee for this year’s award that includes a cash prize of £25,000. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the prize. The other shortlisted artists included Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson and Delaine Le Bas.

Born in Glasgow, Kaur’s great-grandfather reportedly moved from Punjab in 1950, three years after Partition; her father owns a hardware store in Scotland. Her prize-winning exhibition “Alter Altar”, first shown in Glasgow last year, also reflects on her own family history as migrants to Scotland and her upbringing.

It featured, among others, a vintage red Ford Escort covered with a huge crocheted doily, a reference to her father’s migrant aspirations, worship bells, Irn-Bru orange resin, an Axminster carpet, and family photographs. Also playing were soundtracks that were part of Kaur’s growing up years, from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to Bob Marley.

In several interviews, Kaur has often discussed her multicultural upbringing and influences. If her 2021 series, “Gut Feelings Meri Jaan”, explored ideas around inheritance and belonging, history and archive, in the 2018 “I Keep Telling Them These Stories”, she used archival footage and recordings gathered from India and Scotland to explore culture as praxis, family, identity and origins. Her 2019 publication, “Be Like Teflon”, commissioned by Panel for Glasgow Women’s Library, comprises conversations between Kaur and women of Indian heritage living in the UK.

Explained

The Turner Prize

since it was established in 1984, the Turner Prize has emerged as one of the most prestigious art awards. Recognising the work of a British artist, it endeavours to highlight recent developments in contemporary British art. Indian-origin British artist Anish Kapoor won the prize in 1991.

Her website describes her as: “An artist making with the slurry of life. Raised amidst betrayal, secrecy and banished outsiders, her work is to make sense of what is out of view or withheld. She is called towards plurality, declassifications, polyphony, the blur. She is practising singing in the sediment till she is intoxicated.”

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In an interview on the Tate website, Kaur states: “There’s this particular theory that I grew up with from the Sikh tradition which talks about Miri Piri, which is this balance of the political and the spiritual. I’m really interested in that duality and I’ve become quite obsessed with this particular point in my lineage where devotional practices were done across religious lines. That was happening for hundreds of years. But through the violence of borders, the violence of colonialism, the violence of empire, so much of this stuff, it has been impacted. And I’m obsessed with it because it tells me that there’s a different way to live together.”

In her acceptance speech for the award on Tuesday, the Royal College of Art alumnus called for a ceasefire in Gaza, an end to institutional complicity in Israel’s genocide, and an arms embargo. She is also one of the signatories to a letter demanding that Tate sever ties with organisations that are deeply complicit with the Israeli regime. “It’s not a radical demand… This should not risk an artist’s career or safety,” she said in her speech.

Vandana Kalra

Vandana Kalra is an art critic and Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. She has spent more than two decades chronicling arts, culture and everyday life, with modern and contemporary art at the heart of her practice. With a sustained engagement in the arts and a deep understanding of India’s cultural ecosystem, she is regarded as a distinctive and authoritative voice in contemporary art journalism in India. Vandana Kalra's career has unfolded in step with the shifting contours of India’s cultural landscape, from the rise of the Indian art market to the growing prominence of global biennales and fairs. Closely tracking its ebbs and surges, she reports from studios, galleries, museums and exhibition spaces and has covered major Indian and international art fairs, museum exhibitions and biennales, including the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Documenta, Islamic Arts Biennale. She has also been invited to cover landmark moments in modern Indian art, including SH Raza’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the opening of the MF Husain Museum in Doha, reflecting her long engagement with the legacies of India’s modern masters. Alongside her writing, she applies a keen editorial sensibility, shaping and editing art and cultural coverage into informed, cohesive narratives. Through incisive features, interviews and critical reviews, she brings clarity to complex artistic conversations, foregrounding questions of process, patronage, craft, identity and cultural memory. The Global Art Circuit: She provides extensive coverage of major events like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and high-profile international auctions. Artist Spotlights: She writes in-depth features on modern masters (like M.F. Husain) and contemporary performance artists (like Marina Abramović). Art and Labor: A recurring theme in her writing is how art reflects the lives of the marginalized, including migrants, farmers, and labourers. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent portfolio is dominated by the coverage of the 2025 art season in India: 1. Kochi-Muziris Biennale & Serendipity Arts Festival "At Serendipity Arts Festival, a 'Shark Tank' of sorts for art and crafts startups" (Dec 20, 2025): On how a new incubator is helping artisans pitch products to investors. "Artist Birender Yadav's work gives voice to the migrant self" (Dec 17, 2025): A profile of an artist whose decade-long practice focuses on brick kiln workers. "At Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a farmer’s son from Patiala uses his art to draw attention to Delhi’s polluted air" (Dec 16, 2025). "Kochi Biennale showstopper Marina Abramović, a pioneer in performance art" (Dec 7, 2025): An interview with the world-renowned artist on the power of reinvention. 2. M.F. Husain & Modernism "Inside the new MF Husain Museum in Qatar" (Nov 29, 2025): A three-part series on the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam in Doha, exploring how a 2008 sketch became the architectural core of the museum. "Doha opens Lawh Wa Qalam: Celebrating the modernist's global legacy" (Nov 29, 2025). 3. Art Market & Records "Frida Kahlo sets record for the most expensive work by a female artist" (Nov 21, 2025): On Kahlo's canvas The Dream (The Bed) selling for $54.7 million. "All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork" (Nov 19, 2025). "What’s special about a $12.1 million gold toilet?" (Nov 19, 2025): A quirky look at a flushable 18-karat gold artwork. 4. Art Education & History "Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children learn art in India" (Nov 23, 2025). "A glimpse of Goa's layered history at Serendipity Arts Festival" (Dec 9, 2025): Exploring historical landmarks as venues for contemporary art. Signature Beats Vandana is known for her investigative approach to the art economy, having recently written about "Who funds the Kochi-Muziris Biennale?" (Dec 11, 2025), detailing the role of "Platinum Benefactors." She also explores the spiritual and geometric aspects of art, as seen in her retrospective on artist Akkitham Narayanan and the history of the Cholamandal Artists' Village (Nov 22, 2025). ... Read More

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