Nnena Kalu becomes first winner of the Turner prize with a learning disability

Nnena Kalu has won the 2025 Turner prize for her colourful drawings and sculptures made from found fabric and VHS tape, becoming the first artist with learning disabilities to take home the £25,000 prize.

- Lanre Bakare Arts and culture correspondent

Alex Farquharson, Tate Britain’s director and chair of the jury, said the win by the British-Nigerian artist represented a watershed moment for the art world.

“Nnena’s work was very much selected for its quality but given she’s a neurodiverse artist, given her verbal communication is limited, she’s someone who previously would have been on the outside,” he said.

“[Her win] begins to erase that border between the neurotypical and neurodiverse artist. You suddenly become aware that actually it’s been a boundary around our history, and around contemporary art. But that boundary is dissolving”

Kalu’s drawings and sculptures - described by Guardian critic Eddy Frankel as “huge cocoons wrapped into massive, tight, twisting, ultra-colourful knots” - impressed the judging panel, who were torn in a year when nearly all the artists were tipped as potential winners.

The Turner prize, regarded as one of the art world’s most prestigious awards, is given to an artist born or working in Britain for an outstanding exhibition or presentation of their work over the previous year.

The 2025 nominees were widely seen as artists who all seemed to speak to Britain’s contemporary times, where identity and the concept of belonging are in flux. The critical response to the work was typically passionate and divided.