Kalu win a ‘seismic’ moment for neurodivergent children

For the first time in its 41-year history, the prestigious Turner Prize has been awarded to a neurodivergent learning-disabled artist: Nnena Kalu, 59, who is autistic and has limited verbal communication.

- ANNIE RIDOUT

Kalu experiments with colour, texture and dimension in her practice, creating large-scale hanging sculptures that look as if they’re at once containing and bursting with joy. Her detailed pencil drawings have a similar energy, almost leaping from the canvas.

Charlotte Hollinshead, who has worked with Kalu for 25 years as her studio manager and facilitator, said at the Turner Prize awards ceremony: “This is a major, major moment for a lot of people. It’s seismic. It’s broken a very stubborn glass ceiling.”

I have three children, all of whom are neurodivergent with both autism and dyslexia in the mix. My younger two struggle with the formality of school, but at home, all three of them are prolific artists, producing detailed, emotive drawings. Art is where my children excel.

This is one area where they feel free to be themselves and to experiment. They will work hard to bring a vision to life, whether it’s on paper or three-dimensional, staying in a state of hyperfocus until it’s just as they envisaged, or has evolved into something unexpected but pleasing.