RENE MATIĆ, Set up view of “Untitled (No Place for Violence),” 2024, “AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH,” CCA Berlin (2024).| Photograph: Diana Pfammatter/CCA Berlin
A LARGE SCALE FLAG by British artist Rene Matić (b. 1997) options the phrases “No Place” on one facet and “For Violence” on the reverse. The flag and its seemingly simplified message featured prominently within the Matić’s 2024 exhibition on the Heart for Up to date Artwork (CCA) Berlin. The set up references the remarks of then-President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama in response to the assassination try on Donald Trump throughout a marketing campaign cease in Butler, Pa., final yr. Biden declared there’s “no place for violence” in politics, society, or America. In an announcement, Obama stated: “There may be completely no place for political violence in our democracy.”
Matić has stated the work is designed to “embarrass the sort of precept of what a flag is meant to be.” The CCA Berlin exhibition abstract additional cited the problematic nature of the statements and the enduring, hypocritical notion that democracy eschews violence:
“Backdropped by the worldwide debates across the assaults of seven October 2023 and the continued struggle towards Palestinians, which has thus far claimed tens of 1000’s of lives, the set up factors to a misleading, two-fold logic of the Western political rhetoric: The condemnation of violence acts as an ethical signifier of common human rights whereas concurrently relocating the foundation of evil to our democracy’s exterior, the place an distinctive type of violence (sovereign, colonial, anti-terror, or in any other case) is all the time already justified within the identify of that democracy.”
The exhibition earned Matić a spot on this yr’s Turner Prize shortlist. On April 24, Tate introduced 4 artists shortlisted for the 2025 Turner Prize. Along with Matić, the record consists of Nnena Kalu (b. 1966), Mohammed Sami (b. 1984) and Zadie Xa (b. 1983).
The Turner Prize is without doubt one of the most outstanding artist prizes on the planet. The prize “goals to advertise public debate round new developments in up to date British artwork.” Artists are acknowledged based mostly on an distinctive exhibition or presentation of their work. The winner shall be introduced on December.
Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain and chair of the Turner Prize Jury, stated: “The shortlist displays the breadth of creative follow immediately, from portray and sculpture to pictures and set up, and every of the artists gives a singular method of viewing the world via private expertise and expression.”
“The shortlist displays the breadth of creative follow immediately, from portray and sculpture to pictures and set up, and every of the artists gives a singular method of viewing the world via private expertise and expression.” — Tate Britain Director Alex Farquharson
Artist Nnena Kalu, 2025 Turner Prize Shortlist. | Courtesy the Artist and ActionSpace
The follow of Vancouver, Canada-born, London-based Xa usually attracts on her Korean heritage. Expressing herself throughout mural, textile, and sound works, Xa’s work “focuses on the ocean as a non secular realm to discover traditions and folklore, chatting with a large number of cultures,” the announcement stated. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, London-based artist Sami is “greatest recognized for his large-scale work which discover reminiscence and loss.”
Kalu’s follow spans sculpture, set up, and two-dimensional works on paper. She “makes cocoon-like shapes out of paper and textiles that are then sure, layered and wrapped in brightly colored cellophane and tape to create expressive hanging sculptural installations. Her work is rooted in a means of repeated gestures, as seen in her summary swirling, drawings on paper.”
For the Turner Prize, she was acknowledged for a presentation featured in “Conversations” on the Walker Artwork Gallery (Nationwide Museums Liverpool), a bunch exhibition of 40 Black feminine and nonbinary British up to date artists, and Hanging Sculpture 1 to 10 at Manifesta 15 (2024) in Barcelona, Spain. The jury “recommended her distinctive command of fabric, color and gesture and her extremely attuned responses to architectural area.”
Born in Glasgow and based mostly in London, Kalu has a longstanding affiliation with ActionSpace, a visible arts group that helps and develops artists with studying disabilities. Since 1999, Kalu has been a resident artist at ActionSpace’s Studio Voltaire in London. Her extremely achieved follow has been acknowledged with notable exhibitions, awards, and acquisitions. “Nnena Kalu: Creations of Care,” the artist’s first solo exhibition exterior of the UK is at the moment on view at Kunsthall Stavanger in Norway (March 20-Aug. 3, 2025).
NNENA KALU, Set up view of “Hanging Sculpture 1 to 10,” 2024 (combined media: VHS tapes, paper, combined tapes, plastic, combined materials, tubing, rope, Dimensions variable). | Photograph courtesy of Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana. Photograph: Ivan Erofeev
Matić, 27, is the youngest artist to be shortlisted for the Turner Prize for the reason that prize was first awarded in 1984. The highly effective and poignant follow of the artist and author spans pictures, movie, sculpture, set up, textile, sound, and poetry. Matić explores race, gender, and sophistication dynamics and moments of on a regular basis pleasure and tenderness amongst household and associates. The work could also be expressed on an intimate degree and in a political context.
Born in Peterborough, UK, Matić lives and works in London. Their work has been introduced in myriad solo and group exhibitions within the UK. Final yr, “Rene Matić/Oscar Murillo JAZZ,” a two-artist present was on view at Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier in Vienna. In 2023, Chapter NY gallery featured a solo exhibition of Matić, who was additionally included in “Dreaming of Dwelling,” a bunch exhibition at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Artwork in New York. “Dreaming of Dwelling” assembled 20 artists “whose work invokes the comforts and issues of queer and trans home life throughout worldwide and intergenerational views.” “Rene Matić: Idols Lovers Moms Pals” is at the moment on view at Arcadia Missa gallery in London, via June 3.
The Turner Prize jury acknowledged the artist for “Rene Matić: AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH” at CCA Berlin. The jury was “struck by the artist’s means to precise considerations round belonging and identification, conveying broader experiences of a younger era and their neighborhood via an intimate and compelling physique of labor.”
A bunch exhibition showcasing the 2025 Turner Prize shortlisted artists opens in September at Cartwright Corridor Artwork Gallery in Bradford, UK. This yr’s Turner Prize exhibition is a part of Bradford 2025 UK Metropolis of Tradition, a yearlong celebration of tradition, creativity, and neighborhood.
The winner of 2025 Turner Prize shall be introduced (Dec. 9) at a ceremony in Bradford and be awarded £25,000 (about US $33,000). The remaining shortlisted artists every obtain £10,000 (about US $13,000). CT
FIND MORE concerning the Turner Prize, the 2025 shortlisted artists, and the forthcoming Turner Prize exhibition
Artist Rene Matić, 2025 Turner Prize Shortlist. | Photograph: Diana Pfammatter, Courtesy the Artist and Arcadia Missa, London
RENE MATIĆ, Set up view of “AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH,” CCA Berlin, 2024. | Photograph: Diana Pfammatter/CCA Berlin
RENE MATIĆ, Set up view of “AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH,” CCA Berlin, 2024. Proven, “Restoration” (2022–ongoing). | Photograph: Diana Pfammatter/CCA Berlin
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From the Exhibition Abstract (CCA Berlin): Rene Matić has been gathering black dolls from thrift shops, the web, and another nook of the earth for a few years––dolls which can be usually forgotten, uncared for, and damaged. Matić traces this obsession again to their father’s expertise of abandonment as a black baby rising up in Peterborough within the UK: “I adopted these infants in a method he wasn’t––rigorously and lovingly.”
NNENA KALU, Set up view of “Hanging Sculpture 1 to 10,” 2024 (combined media: VHS tapes, paper, combined tapes, plastic, combined materials, tubing, rope, Dimensions variable). | Photograph courtesy Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana, Photograph: Ivan Erofeev
NNENA KALU, Set up view of “Conversations,” Walker Artwork Gallery, Liverpool. | Courtesy the Artist and Walker Artwork Gallery, Liverpool, Photograph: Pete Carr
FIND MORE about Nnena Kalu on the ActionSpace web site
FIND MORE about Rene Matić on Instagram and in a dialog with Lore Alender printed by Emergent Journal
BOOKSHELF
“Religion and Methods to Preserve It” by Rene Matić was printed in 2021. That includes images Matić made between 2018 and 2021 and an introduction by artist Hannah Black, “Flags for International locations That Don’t Exist However Our bodies That Do” is out of print. “Veronica Ryan: Alongside a Spectrum” explores the work of Veronica Ryan who gained the 2022 Turner Prize. Ingrid Pollard was shortlisted in 2022. These current volumes seize her work: “Ingrid Pollard: Carbon Slowly Turning” and “Ingrid Pollard: Hasselblad Award 2024.” Publications documenting the work of 2017 Turner Prize winner Lubaina Himid embrace “Lubaina Himid: Her Artwork and Creativity,” and “Lubaina Himid: Work from Beneath.” The title “Lubaina Himid: Make Do and Mend” is forthcoming subsequent week. Hurvin Anderson was shortlisted in 2017. Printed by Rizzoli in 2022, “Hurvin Anderson” supplies a complete overview of the artist’s profession. Claudette Johnson was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2024. Her current publications embrace “Claudette Johnson: Presence,” “Claudette Johnson: I Come to Dance,” and “Claudette Johnson: Line, Rhythm, House.” Additionally take into account, “Artwork Is Artwork: Collaborating with Neurodiverse Artists at Creativity Explored,” which was printed in 2023 to mark the 40 anniversary of Creativity Explored. Situated in San Francisco, Calif., the nonprofit “provides individuals with developmental disabilities the chance to precise themselves via artwork and share their work with audiences from their local people and within the up to date artwork world.”
