Turner Prize 2025 shortlist revealed

The Turner Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious awards for visual art, has revealed the shortlist for 2025. Established in 1984, the prize is awarded annually to a British artist for an outstanding exhibition or presentation of their work. The winner receives £25,000, while the other shortlisted artists each receive £10,000. This year, the Turner Prize exhibition will take place at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, as part of the city’s UK City of Culture celebrations. The winner will be announced on 9 December 2025. The four artists nominated for this year’s prize—Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa—present powerful and varied works that reflect on identity, memory, loss, and cultural heritage.

Nnena Kalu

Nnena Kalu, ‘Hanging Sculpture 1 to 10’, installation view, 2024. Photo courtesy of Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana. Image credit: Ivan Erofeev.

Nnena Kalu, nominated for her presentations at Conversations at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and Hanging Sculpture 1 to 10 at Manifesta 15, Barcelona, is celebrated for her unique ability to transform simple materials into powerful sculptural installations. Kalu creates cocoon-like forms from paper and textiles, layering them with vibrant cellophane and tape to produce striking, hanging sculptures.

Nnena Kalu. Image courtesy of the Artist and ActionSpace.

Her work is rooted in repetitive gestures and abstract drawings on paper, which explore movement and space. The jury praised her masterful use of colour, material, and her engagement with architectural space, positioning her as a leading figure in contemporary British art.

Rene Matić

Rene Matić, ‘AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH’, Installation view, CCA Berlin, 2024. Image credit Diana Pfammatter/CCA Berlin)

Rene Matić’s nominated for their solo exhibition AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH at CCA Berlin, focuses on personal moments of joy and tenderness amidst a broader socio-political backdrop. Matić’s art features intimate photographs of family and friends, often combined with sound, banners, and installations to amplify themes of identity and belonging.

Rene Matić. Image credit: Photo: Diana Pfammatter; Courtesy the Artist and Arcadia Missa, London)

The jury was struck by Matić’s ability to convey the collective experience of a young generation navigating complex identities. Their practice captures community, vulnerability, and the intertwining of personal and political narratives, offering a compelling reflection on contemporary life.

Mohammed Sami

Installation view, ‘Mohammed Sami, After the Storm’, Blenheim Art Foundation, Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, 9 July–6 October, 2024. Image credit Tom Lindboe.

Mohammed Sami, nominated for his exhibition After the Storm at Blenheim Palace, creates large-scale paintings that explore memory, trauma, and loss. His evocative landscapes and interiors, often devoid of human presence, reflect on absence and the lasting effects of conflict and exile.

Mohammed Sami. Image credit Sarel Jansen.

Drawing from his personal experience growing up in Baghdad during the Iraq War and later as a refugee in Sweden, Sami layers patterns and colours to create haunting, dreamlike scenes. The jury commended his powerful representation of war and displacement, with the backdrop of Blenheim Palace adding depth to his poignant works.

Zadie Xa

Zadie Xa with Benito Mayor Vallejo, Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything, 2025. Installation view. Courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation. Image credit: Danko Stjepanovic

Zadie Xa’s nomination stems from her captivating presentation Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything at Sharjah Biennial 16. Xa’s multidisciplinary approach blends painting, textiles, sound, and sculpture, often exploring the sea as a spiritual realm and a metaphor for cultural heritage and folklore. In her installation, Xa interweaves vibrant paintings, bojagi patchwork, and a soundscape, culminating in a brass wind chime sculpture inspired by Korean shamanic rituals. The jury praised the cohesive and sophisticated nature of her work, which merges her reflective practice with a respect for cultural traditions.

Zadie Xa. Image credit Charles Duprat. Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac gallery.

The 2025 Turner Prize jury includes Andrew Bonacina (Independent Curator), Sam Lackey (Director, Liverpool Biennial), Priyesh Mistry (Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Projects, The National Gallery), and Habda Rashid (Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Fitzwilliam Museum). The jury is chaired by Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain. Farquharson commented, “The shortlist reflects the breadth of artistic practice today, from painting and sculpture to photography and installation. I look forward to an unmissable exhibition of their work in Bradford this autumn.”