Artist in profile: Nnena Kalu
Body in Rhythm, Line in Motion.
Published: September 21, 2025
Turner Prize 2025 nominee Nnena Kalu makes large-scale hanging sculptures and drawings. Her bold abstract works use mark making, layering, different materials and scales.
Learn more about Kalu and her work on this page – and plan your visit to the Turner Prize 2025.
Glasgow-born artist Nnena Kalu is nominated for the Turner Prize 2025 for her inclusion of Drawing 21 in the group exhibition Conversations at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and her works Hanging Sculpture 1-10. Barcelona at Manifesta 15, Barcelona.
To create her sculptures, Kalu begins with a loop, tube or structure that forms a base. Around these forms she wraps, folds and knots streams of repurposed fabric, rope, tape, cling film, paper and VHS tape. These brightly coloured lengths and strips come together to form bundles, sometimes resembling nests or cocoons. Finishing her works on site, Kalu responds to the space and character of where she is working.
Her drawings echo the sculptures, often consisting of powerful vortexes made with swirling, overlapping lines.
Watch the video below to learn more about Kalu and her inspiration.
Nnena Kalu's inspiration
The Turner Prize 2025 nominated artists have selected literature or music to share that are important them or inspired the works on view
Listen to the playlist below and hear some of the tracks that inspire Nnena Kalu’s work.
