A Turner Prize Shortlist That J.M.W. Turner Might Have Appreciated

New York Times

23-04-2025

Mohammed Sami, an Iraqi painter who once created murals of Saddam Hussein, and Zadie Xa, a Canadian artist of Korean heritage, are among the nominees for this year's Turner Prize, the organizers of the prestigious British art award announced on Wednesday.
The four artists in the running for the prize — including Nnena Kalu and Rene Matic — were revealed during a news conference at the Tate Britain museum in London on the 250th anniversary of the birth of J.M.W. Turner, the 19th-century painter for whom the prize is named.
Alex Farquharson, Tate Britain's director and the chair of the prize jury, said that there were traces of Turner's art in some of the shortlisted artists' work, including in the 'sublime, swirling' compositions of Xa's murals and Sami's paintings of war-torn Iraq, which he called 'a new type of history painting.'
Farquharson said that Turner himself might not have seen the similarities between the nominees' work and his own, but added, 'The language of contemporary art had expanded so much in the past 250 years.'
Among this year nominees, Sami, 40, has the highest profile. In 2023, Sotheby's sold one of his paintings for more than $400,000, and he has a work on display in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Born in Baghdad, Sami left Iraq after the American-led invasion that toppled Hussein and was granted asylum in Sweden. He studied at the Belfast School of Art and at Goldsmiths, University of London, in Britain.
Each artist — who must be British or working predominantly in Britain — is nominated for an exhibition held during the previous 12 months, and the Turner Prize judges selected Sami for 'After the Storm,' a solo show held at Blenheim Palace, a stately home in the English countryside. British art critics raved about that show when it opened last year: Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times, in London, said Sami's paintings were 'a shadowy mix of figuration and abstraction' that 'give their meanings slowly.'
Nnena Kalu, 58, an artist with learning disabilities, received a nomination for a series of colorful sculptures made from fabric and videotape that she displayed at last year's Manifesta art biennial in Barcelona, where they hung from the ceiling of a disused power station.
Zadie Xa, 41, made the shortlist for 'Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything,' an installation made with Benito Mayor Vallejo that is showing at the Sharjah Biennial 16 in the United Arab Emirates through June 15. The work combines large-format paintings, recorded sounds and an arrangement of 650 brass bells.
The youngest nominated artist is Rene Matic, 27, for the show 'As Opposed to the Truth' at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Berlin. That exhibition included a collection of Black dolls that the artist found online and in thrift stores, as well photographs and a sound work.
Founded in 1984, the Turner Prize is one of the art world's most respected awards: Damien Hirst, Steve McQueen and Lubaina Himid have all won it. The victor receives 25,000 pounds, or about $33,000, as well as a significant boost in profile.
Last year's award went to Jasleen Kaur, whose installation work focused on her childhood growing up in a Scottish Sikh community. Other recent winners have included Jesse Darling and Veronica Ryan.
A free exhibition of work by this year's nominees will open at the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, a city in northern England, on Sept. 27 and run through Feb. 22. The jury will announce the winner during a ceremony in the same city on Dec. 9.