Turner Prize 2025 foreword
Alex Farquharson, Chair of the Turner Prize Jury and Director, Tate Britain, introduces the Turner Prize 2025.
Published: September 16, 2025
Author: Alex Farquharson
One of the world’s best-known prizes for the visual arts, the Turner Prize aims to promote public engagement with new developments in contemporary art in Britain.
Regularly travelling to venues across the UK, the Turner Prize enjoys popularity with visitors wherever it goes, making it one of the most enduring and powerful models for cultural partnership and creative access today. This year we are delighted that the Turner Prize exhibition is presented by Cartwright Hall, as part of Bradford 2025, UK City of Culture, the first time it has been hosted in West Yorkshire. Cartwright Hall, with its strong programme, community connections and appeal to audiences, is an excellent choice of venue, and Tate is glad to be working with Bradford 2025, Bradford Museums & Galleries and Yorkshire Contemporary on this year’s Turner Prize. We look forward to the exhibition being enjoyed by visitors from the Bradford area in large numbers, as well as from across the UK. Bradford 2025 will offer an exciting creative legacy in the city and region for years to come, and we are pleased that the Turner Prize is part of that story.
Established in 1984, the prize is named after the visionary painter JMW Turner (1775-1851), whose 250th anniversary is celebrated in 2025. Each year, four British or UK-based artists are shortlisted by an independent jury for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work that has taken place over the past year, from which a winner is selected. This year the artists are Nnena Kalu, Renée Matić, Mohammed Sami and Zadie Xa. Their work spans painting, sculpture, photography, installation and sound, and variously concerns identity, community, cultural heritage, memory, conflict and improvisation. On behalf of Tate I would like to warmly congratulate each of the four shortlisted artists. I would also like to thank this year’s Turner Prize Jury: 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.
Alex Farquharson, Chair of the Turner Prize Jury and Director, Tate Britain
