About the Prize
Established in 1984 and named after the artist JMW Turner, the Turner Prize is one of the most recognised awards in contemporary art. The 2025 edition marks both the 250th anniversary of Turner’s birth and a key moment in Bradford’s year as UK City of Culture. Each shortlisted artist will receive £10,000, with the overall winner awarded £25,000. This year’s jury includes curators from Tate Britain, the National Gallery, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and the Liverpool Biennial.
The Artists
Mohammed Sami: Memory in Paint
Iraqi-born artist Mohammed Sami has been recognised for his solo show After the Storm at Blenheim Palace. Sami’s large-scale paintings explore memory, conflict, and exile. Working from remembered images rather than direct observation, he paints eerie, often empty interiors and landscapes charged with invisible presence. Sami’s practice, shaped by experiences under Saddam Hussein’s regime and as a refugee in Sweden, invites viewers to engage with trauma through the every-day . “I hide the traumatic image behind a cactus, or a carpet”.
Nnena Kalu: Sculptural Energy
Nnena Kalu is an artist with learning disabilities and limited verbal communication. She has been shortlisted for her installations in Manifesta 15 and Conversations at the Walker Art Gallery. Working with bound layers of brightly coloured materials, Kalu creates sculptural forms that seem to pulse with movement. Her drawings and sculptures often emerge through repeated physical gestures, reflecting her direct relationship with space and material. A long-time resident artist with ActionSpace, the selection jury praised her work for its “unique command of material, colour and gesture” and its responses to architectural space.
Rene Matić: Belonging and The Everyday
At 27, Rene Matić is the second-youngest artist to be nominated for the prize after Damian Hirst. Their work blends photography, sound and found materials to explore themes of identity, Jamaican heritage and belonging. Their nomination stems from the exhibition AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH at CCA Berlin, where images of friends and family were arranged alongside cultural objects and sound. Described by the Tate as capturing “fleeting moments of joy in daily life, and expressions of tenderness within a wider political context”, Matić’s work offers a snapshot of contemporary life shaped by both tenderness and resistance.
Zadie Xa: Myth, Ritual and Sound
Zadie Xa is nominated for her presentation at Sharjah Biennial 16. Her large-scale installations blend Korean folklore, shamanic rituals and sound. Working with painting, patchwork textiles, and sculptural forms, including an interactive sculpture of 650 brass wind chimes, Xa builds immersive environments that explore cultural memory and belonging. Her practice speaks to both ancestral knowledge and future mythologies, inviting audiences into shared sensory experiences. The jury described her work as a “sophisticated development” of her visual and sonic language.
Learn about past Turner Prize Artists in our free course, Making Sense of Contemporary Art.
