Scottish artist Nnena Kalu won the Turner Prize, the UK’s most prestigious visual arts prize, on Tuesday, becoming the first person with an intellectual disability to be awarded the prize.
Nnena Kalou (Glasgow, 1966) won the prize worth 25,000 pounds (28,596 euros) from the hands of magician Steven Frayne at the gala organized today in Bradford (northern England), which hosts the title of British city of culture in 2025.
At the Grammar School, the alma mater of famous British artist David Hockney, The Scotswoman beat the rest of the finalistsRené Matic, Mohammed Sami and Zadie
Kalu, 59, is on the autism spectrumhas learning difficulties and limited communication, so when receiving the Turnerits artistic animator spoke at the NGO Action Space, Charlotte Hollinshead.
“Nnena Kalu, you made history!” said Hollinshead, to applause and cheers from the Bradford crowd.
In the speech, the artistic presenter assured that the Scottish designer, with whom she has collaborated since 1999, had suffered discrimination due to his neurodivergent disease to date and added: “We hope that this award put an end to these prejudices“.
Kalu won the Turner for his installation ‘Hanging Sculpture 1-10’, originally presented at the Manifesta 15 Biennale in Barcelona in 2024 and its presentation in ‘Conversations’, an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool (England).
His work, which on display until February 22 with that of the other finalists at the Cartwright Hall Gallery in Bradford, he exhibited paintings and drawings, as well as some private objects. hanging sculptures made from ropes, ribbons of different materials and fabrics which together constitute infinite and hypnotic swirls full of colors, textures and shapes that resemble that of a large eye.
The jury, chaired by the director of the Tate Britain gallery in London, Alex Farquharson, praised Kalu’s “courageous” workas well as their presence, their colors and the “living translation of expressive gestures” in the sculptures and drawings.
The Turner Prize, one of the best known in the field of visual arts in the world, aims to promote public debate around new developments in contemporary British art since its creation in 1984, and has had winners such as Steve McQueen, Damien Hirst and, more recently, the Scottish Jasleen Kaur.
The Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), in the north-east of England, will be the venue for the Turner Prize in 2026they announced on Tuesday.
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