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An artist who creates swirling sculptures out of fabric and old videocassette tape, and another who installed huge paintings evoking wartime trauma in the genteel rooms of Blenheim Palace, have been shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize.
Nnena Kalu, a Scottish-born, London-based artist, and Mohammed Sami, who fled his native Iraq as a refugee, have been chosen alongside Rene Matić and Zadie Xa to compete for the contemporary art prize.
Hailing the “fantastic” shortlist, Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain, said the work of the four artists “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”.
The announcement on Wednesday marked the 250th anniversary of JMW Turner’s birth, he said, adding: “I’m delighted to see his spirit of innovation is still alive and well in contemporary British art today.”
Kalu, who has learning disabilities and works with the support of the London arts organisation Action Space, creates large-scale installations by repetitively winding strips of fabric and tape into colourful, untidy forms that have been described as “like a dumpster-diver’s dream”. She also works on paper, drawing swirling abstract forms through repetitive gestures.
Sami, who was born in Baghdad in 1984 and as a schoolboy painted propaganda murals for Saddam Hussain’s regime, was nominated for an exhibition of paintings at Blenheim Palace that the Guardian said “[sent] a depth charge” through its stately rooms. His work grapples with the traumatic memories of his early war-torn life and later exile in Sweden.
Matić, originally from Peterborough, was born in 1997 and is the youngest artist on the shortlist. They were nominated for an exhibition at Berlin’s Centre for Contemporary Arts made up of photographs and installations exploring questions of national and cultural identity. The jury, which also included independent curator Andrew Bonacina, Sam Lackey, the director of Liverpool Biennial, Priyesh Mistry, a curator at the National Gallery and Habda Rashid, of Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, praised Matić’s “intimate and compelling body of work”.
The fourth name on the list, Xa, is a Korean-Canadian artist whose work often includes large scale paintings and textiles exploring culture, tradition and folklore. Her nominated installation, at Sharjah Biennial 16 in the UAE, including paintings, traditional Korean patchwork and an interactive sculpture of over 650 brass wind chimes inspired by shamanic ritual bells.
An exhibition of the four artists’ work will be staged later in the year at Bradford’s Cartwright Hall art gallery, as part of its UK City of Culture programme, before the winner is announced on 9 December at a ceremony in the city.
Shanaz Gulzar, creative director of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, said: “Having an internationally renowned event like the Turner Prize here in Bradford is a landmark moment for our city.
“Each of the nominees has a remarkable ability to take huge subject matters and abstract themes, and turn them into powerful, shared experiences. We believe that audiences will connect deeply with the diversity of vision, ideas, and approach of these exceptional artists.”
