Turner Prize nominates neurodiverse and refugee artists

A learning disabled artist, a former Iraqi refugee and one of the youngest ever nominees are among the artists shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize.

Nnena Kalu, Mohammed Sami, Zadie Xa and Rene Matić – who at 27 is the second youngest artist to be nominated after Damien Hirst – are all in the running for the prestigious annual art prize, the Tate announced on Wednesday.

An exhibition of their work will be held at the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery from September as part of Bradford’s UK City of Culture celebrations.

The winner, who will be awarded £25,000, will then be announced on 9 December at a ceremony in the West Yorkshire city.

Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain and chair of the Turner Prize jury, said the shortlist “reflects the breadth of artistic practice today, from painting and sculpture to photography and installation”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the artists, who are each guaranteed to receive £10,000, offer “extraordinary world-views that are very personal”.

Take a closer look at all four shortlisted artists and their work:

Glasgow-born Nnena Kalu (above), who has limited verbal communication, has been a resident artist with Action Space, which supports artists with learning disabilities, for more than 25 years.

She creates large-scale swirling abstract drawings and sculpures made from colourful streams of repurposed fabrics and materials such as reels of VHS tape.

The jury praised her “unique command of material, colour and gesture and her highly attuned responses to architectural space”.

Photographer, writer and poet Rene Matić, from Peterborough, is nominated for solo exhibition As Opposed To The Truth at CCA Berlin, which touches on the rise of right-wing populism and identities.

Matić captures “fleeting moments of joy in daily life, and expressions of tenderness within a wider political context”, according to Tate, using intimate photos of family and friends placed in an installation which also includes objects like the artist’s collection of children’s black dolls bought in second-hand shops.

Their work looks at themes including “the constructed self through the lens of rudeness” and rudeboy culture, a Jamaican subculture.

The jury said they were “struck by the artist’s ability to express concerns around belonging and identity”.

Mohammed Sami hails from Baghdad and his work draws on his life and experiences during the Iraq war and as a refugee in Sweden.

The artist is recognised for solo exhibition After the Storm at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, and the jury were impressed by his “powerful representation” of war and exile.

His large-scale paintings explore memory and loss, layering patterns and colours to create “haunting, dreamlike scenes”.

Zadie Xa comes from Vancouver, Canada, and her work is inspired by her Korean heritage and the importance of shamanic beliefs.

Interweaving paintings, murals, traditional patchwork textiles and 650 brass bells that make harmonised sounds inspired by Korean shamanic ritual bells, Xa’s art focuses on the sea as “a spiritual realm to explore traditions and folklore, speaking to a multitude of cultures”.

The jury felt the “vibrant installation” was a “sophisticated development” of her work.

Established in 1984, the prize is named after radical painter JMW Turner – who would have turned 250 on Wednesday – and is awarded each year to a British-based artist for an “outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work”.

Shanaz Gulzar, creative director Bradford UK City of Culture 2025, said it was “a huge honour and privilege” to bring the prize to the city that gave the world David Hockney.

“Bradford has produced some amazing artists, literary artists, visual artists, contemporary artists,” she told Radio 4.

“And to have these four artists in Bradford, I think really speaks to how we’re delivering our year so far, and it speaks to our audiences.”

Last year’s prize was won by Jasleen Kaur, who used a vintage Ford Escort, worship bells and Irn-Bru to celebrate the Scottish Sikh community.

Other ther previous winners have included Sir Anish Kapoor (1991), Damien Hirst (1995) and Sir Steve McQueen (1999).