A disability charity has praised autistic artist Nnena Kalu’s “long overdue” and “richly deserved” Turner Prize win.

The 59-year-old Scottish artist, who has limited verbal communication, became the first artist with a learning disability to win the 2025 award, which comes with a £25,000 prize.

Stephanie Tyrrell, head of arts and wellbeing at Sense, said: “It’s incredibly significant that Nnena Kalu has won the Turner Prize.

“Nnena’s sculptures are huge, beautiful and so impactful. Now she is finally being celebrated on the national and international stage – and it’s both richly deserved and long overdue.

“Nnena’s success proves what disabled people can achieve, given opportunities and support. Her Turner Prize win is a major moment showing why talented disabled artists can no longer be overlooked.

“We hope the 2025 Turner Prize will mark a new beginning, where many more disabled artists are given the chance to shine. Disabled people make up a quarter of the population and we want to see more representation and recognition for the incredible contribution disabled artists make.”

Kalu, who is a resident artist at ActionSpace’s studio which supports learning disabled artists across London at Studio Voltaire, beat fellow shortlisted artists Rene Matic, Mohammed Sami and Zadie Xa to the gong.

A statement from ActionSpace read: “We’re thrilled to celebrate Nnena Kalu, who has been part of ActionSpace since 1999. Over the years, she has developed a bold, unmistakable voice in contemporary art, creating immersive, powerful sculptures.

“Her Turner Prize win is not only a recognition of her extraordinary talent, but also a celebration of what long-term, artist-centred support can make possible for learning-disabled artists.”

Kalu won the award for her installation Hanging Sculpture 1-10, which Manifesta 15 Barcelona commissioned her to create at a disused power station, and her presentation in Conversations, a group exhibition at Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

She is known for her large-scale abstract drawings and hanging sculptures, and was awarded the prize by Steven Frayne, the magician formerly known as Dynamo, at an award ceremony on Tuesday in Bradford, this year’s UK City Of Culture.

The jury, which was chaired by Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain, commended Kalu’s “bold and compelling work”, and praised the “lively translation of expressive gesture” in the abstract sculpture and drawing, and the panel also acknowledged Kalu’s scale, composition and colour.

Despite high praise, the decision to give the award to Kalu has prompted criticism from some art critics, with The Telegraph’s Alastair Sooke describing it as a “maddening decision” and The Sunday Times’ Waldemar Januszczak calling her work “disjointed and messy”.

Januszczak’s review of the winning work read: “I don’t think I have ever seen quite as dishevelled a gallery.

“Her sculptures, fashioned from reams of VHS tape and rolls of gaffer, looked as if zero thought had gone into making them. Indeed, that was exactly the process.”

Speaking at the award ceremony, which saw attendees moved to tears when the winner was announced, Kalu’s artistic facilitator Charlotte Hollinshead, who helps her to communicate, described her as a “superstar” and said her work had been created while listening to disco music “as loud as possible”.

She said: “Nnena’s career reflects the long, often very frustrating journey we’ve been on together, all of us, (the) ActionSpace team, to challenge people’s preconceptions about differently-abled artists, but especially learning-disabled artists, an important creative community, so undervalued.

“When Nnena first began working with ActionSpace in 1999, the world was not interested, her work wasn’t respected, not seen, and it certainly wasn’t regarded as cool.

“Nnena has faced an incredible amount of discrimination, which continues to this day, so hopefully this award smashes that prejudice away. Nnena Kalu, you’ve made history.”

Hollinshead said Kalu was “ready to accept her call from the palace to accept her damehood”, before the artist blew kisses to the crowd.

Works by the four Turner Prize finalists are currently available to see at a free exhibition at Bradford’s Cartwright Hall Art Gallery until February 22.

Previous recipients include sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor (1991), artist Damien Hirst (1995) and filmmaker Sir Steve McQueen (1999).

The Turner Prize 2026 will be held at MIMA, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.