Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami and Zadie Xa have been shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize.
Announced on the 250th anniversary of English artist JMW Turner’s birth, the four artists will now prepare for an exhibition of their work later this year before a winner is chosen.
Set up in 1984, the Turner Prize is the
UK’s most prestigious art prize
Inspired by the renowned landscape artist from the Romantic era, the Turner Prize, now in its 41st year, has been honoring numerous significant contemporary British artists.
Past victors encompass Damien Hirst, Steve McQueen, and Grayson Perry.
Last year’s
winner was Jasleen Kaur
For ‘Alter Altar,’ she gave voice to ordinary items using sound installations, delving into her cultural background with sculptures crafted from family photographs, an Axminster carpet, a retro Ford Escort enveloped in a large lace coverlet, Irn-Bru cans, and spinning handbells.
The artists nominated this year hail from various disciplines, including expansive paintings that capture life in Baghdad as well as sculptures encased in cellophane.
The 2025 shortlist was announced at a ceremony at the Tate Britain in London. An exhibition of their work will be held at the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford from 27 September 2025 to 22 February 2026 as part of the
Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture celebrations
. Finally, the winner will be announced in a ceremony on 9 December 2025, also in Bradford.
Each shortlisted artist will be awarded £10,000 (€11,700) with the winner awarded a prize of £25,000 (€29,200).
“It’s an honour to announce this fantastic Turner Prize shortlist – congratulations to all the nominees. The shortlist reflects the breadth of artistic practice today, from painting and sculpture to photography and installation, and each of the artists offers a unique way of viewing the world through personal experience and expression,” said Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain and Chair of the Turner Prize Jury.
“On JMW Turner’s 250th birthday, I’m delighted to see his spirit of innovation is still alive and well in contemporary British art today, and I look forward to an unmissable exhibition of their work in Bradford this autumn.”
Here’s a breakdown of the four shortlisted artists:
Nnena Kalu
Kalu has been shortlisted for her exhibition as part of ‘Conversations’ at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and ‘Hanging Sculpture 1 to 10’ at Manifesta 15 in Barcelona. This Glasgow-based artist crafts captivating sculptural installations using materials such as paper and textiles, which she subsequently encases in cellophane to form enveloping structures.
By repeating movements or actions evident in her vortex drawings, Kalu’s approach merges “a distinctive mastery over materials, color, and motion along with her finely tuned reactions to architectural environments.”
Rene Matić
Matić has been shortlisted for a solo show titled ‘AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH’ at CCA Berlin. Having been born in 1997, Matić stands out as the most junior artist among those nominated. Their art delves into concepts like post-blackness, glitch feminism, and subculture theory.
Their photography of personal moments, capturing fleeting moments of quotidian joy bring together individuality and a greater political context. “The jury were struck by the artist’s ability to express concerns around belonging and identity, conveying broader experiences of a young generation and their community through an intimate and compelling body of work.”
Mohammed Sami
Sami has been shortlisted for his individual show ‘After the Storm’ at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. He was born in Baghdad in 1984 and completed his education at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad in 2005 prior to relocating to the United Kingdom.
His expansive artworks featuring surreal settings reflect his recollections and delve into the losses experienced during the Iraq War and his tenure as a refugee in Sweden. “Lacking human figures, he creates desolate vistas, rooms, and pieces of furniture symbolizing missing presences and their associated memories.” The jury commended the artist’s potent depiction of conflict and displacement, showcased within the grand setting of Blenheim Palace.
Zadie Xa
Xa is nominated for her presentation ‘Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything with Benito Mayor Vallejo’ at Sharjah Biennial 16. The Korean-Canadian artist is multidisciplinary in her practice, bringing in sculpture, painting, light, sound, video, and performance.
For her nominated presentation, Xa created an installation that brought together ethereal paintings, bojagi patchwork and an interactive sculpture of over 650 brass wind chimes inspired by Korean shamanic ritual bells to explore the spiritual realm of folklore. “The jury felt that this cohesive work was a sophisticated development of Xa’s reflective and enchanting practice.”