RENE MATIĆ, Installation view of “Untitled (No Place for Violence),” 2024, “AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH,” CCA Berlin (2024).| Photo: Diana Pfammatter/CCA Berlin
A LARGE-SCALE FLAG by British artist Rene Matić (b. 1997) features the words “No Place” on one side and “For Violence” on the reverse. The flag and its seemingly simplified message featured prominently in the Matić’s 2024 exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Art (CCA) Berlin. The installation references the remarks of then-President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama in response to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump during a campaign stop in Butler, Pa., last year. Biden declared there is “no place for violence” in politics, society, or America. In a statement, Obama said: “There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy.”
Matić has said the work is designed to “embarrass the kind of principle of what a flag is supposed to be.” The CCA Berlin exhibition summary further cited the problematic nature of the statements and the enduring, hypocritical notion that democracy eschews violence:
“Backdropped by the global debates around the attacks of 7 October 2023 and the ongoing war against Palestinians, which has so far claimed tens of thousands of lives, the installation points to a deceptive, two-fold logic of the Western political rhetoric: The condemnation of violence acts as a moral signifier of universal human rights while simultaneously relocating the root of evil to our democracy’s outside, where an exceptional form of violence (sovereign, colonial, anti-terror, or otherwise) is always already justified in the name of that democracy.”
The exhibition earned Matić a spot on this year’s Turner Prize shortlist. On April 24, Tate announced four artists shortlisted for the 2025 Turner Prize. In addition to Matić, the list includes Nnena Kalu (b. 1966), Mohammed Sami (b. 1984) and Zadie Xa (b. 1983).
The Turner Prize is one of the most prominent artist prizes in the world. The prize “aims to promote public debate around new developments in contemporary British art.” Artists are recognized based on an exceptional exhibition or presentation of their work. The winner will be announced on December.
Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain and chair of the Turner Prize Jury, said: “The shortlist reflects the breadth of artistic practice today, from painting and sculpture to photography and installation, and each of the artists offers a unique way of viewing the world through personal experience and expression.”
“The shortlist reflects the breadth of artistic practice today, from painting and sculpture to photography and installation, and each of the artists offers a unique way of viewing the world through personal experience and expression.” — Tate Britain Director Alex Farquharson
Artist Nnena Kalu, 2025 Turner Prize Shortlist. | Courtesy the Artist and ActionSpace
The practice of Vancouver, Canada-born, London-based Xa often draws on her Korean heritage. Expressing herself across mural, textile, and sound works, Xa’s work “focuses on the sea as a spiritual realm to explore traditions and folklore, speaking to a multitude of cultures,” the announcement said. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, London-based artist Sami is “best known for his large-scale paintings which explore memory and loss.”
Kalu’s practice spans sculpture, installation, and two-dimensional works on paper. She “makes cocoon-like shapes out of paper and textiles which are then bound, layered and wrapped in brightly coloured cellophane and tape to create expressive hanging sculptural installations. Her work is rooted in a process of repeated gestures, as seen in her abstract swirling, drawings on paper.”
For the Turner Prize, she was recognized for a presentation featured in “Conversations” at the Walker Art Gallery (National Museums Liverpool), a group exhibition of 40 Black female and nonbinary British contemporary artists, and Hanging Sculpture 1 to 10 at Manifesta 15 (2024) in Barcelona, Spain. The jury “commended her unique command of material, colour and gesture and her highly attuned responses to architectural space.”
Born in Glasgow and based in London, Kalu has a longstanding association with ActionSpace, a visual arts organization that supports and develops artists with learning disabilities. Since 1999, Kalu has been a resident artist at ActionSpace’s Studio Voltaire in London. Her highly accomplished practice has been recognized with notable exhibitions, awards, and acquisitions. “Nnena Kalu: Creations of Care,” the artist’s first solo exhibition outside of the UK is currently on view at Kunsthall Stavanger in Norway (March 20-Aug. 3, 2025).
NNENA KALU, Installation view of “Hanging Sculpture 1 to 10,” 2024 (mixed media: VHS tapes, paper, mixed tapes, plastic, mixed fabrics, tubing, rope, Dimensions variable). | Photo courtesy of Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana. Photo: Ivan Erofeev
Matić, 27, is the youngest artist to be shortlisted for the Turner Prize since the prize was first awarded in 1984. The powerful and poignant practice of the artist and writer spans photography, film, sculpture, installation, textile, sound, and poetry. Matić explores race, gender, and class dynamics and moments of everyday joy and tenderness among family and friends. The work may be expressed on an intimate level or in a political context.
Born in Peterborough, UK, Matić lives and works in London. Their work has been presented in myriad solo and group exhibitions in the UK. Last year, “Rene Matić/Oscar Murillo JAZZ,” a two-artist show was on view at Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier in Vienna. In 2023, Chapter NY gallery featured a solo exhibition of Matić, who was also included in “Dreaming of Home,” a group exhibition at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York. “Dreaming of Home” assembled 20 artists “whose work invokes the comforts and complications of queer and trans domestic life across international and intergenerational perspectives.” “Rene Matić: Idols Lovers Mothers Friends” is currently on view at Arcadia Missa gallery in London, through June 3.
The Turner Prize jury recognized the artist for “Rene Matić: AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH” at CCA Berlin. The jury was “struck by the artist’s ability to express concerns around belonging and identity, conveying broader experiences of a young generation and their community through an intimate and compelling body of work.”
A group exhibition showcasing the 2025 Turner Prize shortlisted artists opens in September at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, UK. This year’s Turner Prize exhibition is part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, a yearlong celebration of culture, creativity, and community.
The winner of 2025 Turner Prize will be announced (Dec. 9) at a ceremony in Bradford and be awarded £25,000 (about US $33,000). The remaining shortlisted artists each receive £10,000 (about US $13,000). CT
FIND MORE about the Turner Prize, the 2025 shortlisted artists, and the forthcoming Turner Prize exhibition
Artist Rene Matić, 2025 Turner Prize Shortlist. | Photo: Diana Pfammatter, Courtesy the Artist and Arcadia Missa, London
RENE MATIĆ, Installation view of “AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH,” CCA Berlin, 2024. | Photo: Diana Pfammatter/CCA Berlin
RENE MATIĆ, Installation view of “AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH,” CCA Berlin, 2024. Shown, “Restoration” (2022–ongoing). | Photo: Diana Pfammatter/CCA Berlin
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From the Exhibition Summary (CCA Berlin): Rene Matić has been collecting black dolls from thrift stores, the internet, and any other corner of the earth for many years––dolls that are often forgotten, neglected, and broken. Matić traces this obsession back to their father’s experience of abandonment as a black child growing up in Peterborough in the UK: “I adopted these babies in a way he wasn’t––carefully and lovingly.”
NNENA KALU, Installation view of “Hanging Sculpture 1 to 10,” 2024 (mixed media: VHS tapes, paper, mixed tapes, plastic, mixed fabrics, tubing, rope, Dimensions variable). | Photo courtesy Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana, Photo: Ivan Erofeev
NNENA KALU, Installation view of “Conversations,” Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. | Courtesy the Artist and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Photo: Pete Carr
FIND MORE about Nnena Kalu on the ActionSpace website
FIND MORE about Rene Matić on Instagram and in a conversation with Lore Alender published by Emergent Magazine
BOOKSHELF
“Faith and How to Keep It” by Rene Matić was published in 2021. Featuring photographs Matić made between 2018 and 2021 and an introduction by artist Hannah Black, “Flags for Countries That Don’t Exist But Bodies That Do” is out of print. “Veronica Ryan: Along a Spectrum” explores the work of Veronica Ryan who won the 2022 Turner Prize. Ingrid Pollard was shortlisted in 2022. These recent volumes capture her work: “Ingrid Pollard: Carbon Slowly Turning” and “Ingrid Pollard: Hasselblad Award 2024.” Publications documenting the work of 2017 Turner Prize winner Lubaina Himid include “Lubaina Himid: Her Art and Creativity,” and “Lubaina Himid: Work from Underneath.” The title “Lubaina Himid: Make Do and Mend” is forthcoming next week. Hurvin Anderson was shortlisted in 2017. Published by Rizzoli in 2022, “Hurvin Anderson” provides a comprehensive overview of the artist’s career. Claudette Johnson was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2024. Her recent publications include “Claudette Johnson: Presence,” “Claudette Johnson: I Come to Dance,” and “Claudette Johnson: Line, Rhythm, Space.” Also consider, “Art Is Art: Collaborating with Neurodiverse Artists at Creativity Explored,” which was published in 2023 to mark the 40 anniversary of Creativity Explored. Located in San Francisco, Calif., the nonprofit “gives people with developmental disabilities the opportunity to express themselves through art and share their work with audiences from their local community and in the contemporary art world.”
