Korean Canadian artist Zadie Xa shortlisted for Turner Prize 2025

Korean Canadian artist Zadie Xa has been nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize this year for her presentation at Sharjah Biennial 16, the Tate announced Wednesday.

Xa is among four nominees, alongside British artist Rene Matic, Iraqi artist Sami Mohammad and London-based artist Nnena Kalu. An exhibition of the nominated artists’ works will be held at the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, England, from September this year to February 2026 as part of the Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture celebrations.

The winner will be announced Dec. 9 at an award ceremony in Bradford, a northern English county of West Yorkshire. The prize comes with a cash award of 25,000 pounds ($33,200).

Xa, 42, is known for her powerful installations and paintings that interweave the stories of Korean shamanic rituals, myths and folklore. The presentation she was nominated for, “Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything,” was created in collaboration with Benito Mayor Vallejo at Sharjah Biennial 16, encompassing the forms of mural, textiles, sound and painting.

“Her vibrant installation blended a soundscape with ethereal paintings, bojagi patchwork and an interactive sculpture of over 650 brass wind chimes inspired by Korean shamanic ritual bells. The jury felt that this cohesive work was a sophisticated development of Xa’s reflective and enchanting practice,” according to the Tate. "Bojagi" is the Korea's traditional wrapping cloth.

Kalu was nominated for her presentation as part of “Conversations” at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, England, and “Hanging Sculpture 1 to 10” at Manifesta 15 in Barcelona, Spain. The artist makes cocoonlike shapes out of paper and textiles that are bound, layered and wrapped, the process of which is rooted in repeated gestures.

Matic — who captures fleeting moments of joy in daily life and expressions of tenderness within a wider political context — was nominated for the solo exhibition, “As Opposed to The Truth,” at CCA Berlin.

Exploring memory and loss through art, Sami was recognized by the jury for his large-scale paintings that represent war and exile shown at the solo exhibition “After the Storm” at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England.