I am watching Nnena Kalu making one of her large double-drawing pieces.
Two large sheets of yellow paper are secured side by side to the wall. On the top of a trolley nearby is an open box with a large variety of paint sticks.
Kalu moves rhythmically in a tight circle between the three points. She makes a large circular mark with a carefully delineated tailpiece on the first sheet of paper then creates almost exactly the same mark on the second sheet before returning to the box of paint sticks to choose a new colour.
Kalu is an artist with learning disabilities and limited verbal communication who is supported by arts charity ActionSpace and represented by commercial contemporary art gallery Arcadia Missa.
Kalu has exhibited extensively for years and, in December, after this interview, she was named winner of the Turner Prize for contemporary art.
Artist at work
Kalu is working in her own small professional studio, which is part of ActionSpace at Studio Voltaire in Clapham in south London. She seems very content and makes a gentle murmuring sound to herself as she circles round.
The marks on the two sheets layer and thicken until each displays a dark vortex that is a mirror image of the other. Kalu draws with purpose.
When I get in a bit closer to the second sheet to take some pictures of her working, I find that I am in danger of being bumped by the artist as she circles round again.
“Don’t get in the artist’s way, Seán,” laughs Charlotte Hollinshead, head of artist development at ActionSpace, who has worked with Kalu here for over 25 years.
ActionSpace’s mission is to “seek out and unlock talent” in artists with learning disabilities. Currently, 12 artist-facilitators support about 70 artists with learning disabilities. The charity also helps these artists forge links with the contemporary art world. Support is long term.
In addition, ActionSpace has reached hundreds of people with learning disabilities and others through workshops and residencies.
It has three professional studios: in Clapham, where they are based in Voltaire Studios, the Cockpit in Bloomsbury in central London, and the newest one, West London Studio, which is in Brent.
The Turner Prize exhibition, in Bradford until February 2026, is displaying Kalu’s large drawing pieces as well as her sculptures, which involve winding and wrapping objects in many different materials, including videotape.
Being nominated for the Turner prize in the first place was a powerful recognition of Kalu’s artistic merit – and undoubtedly a triumph for ActionSpace.
But being nominated is not enough, according to Hollinshead.
She says: “Nnena should win. Not just because her art is amazing but because we have watched her work so hard all these years.
“The work is great. The investment, the care, the ambition and passion are massive. It would also mean a huge amount to so many people. A win. The art world needs it.”
Art critic Adrian Searle of The Guardian agrees and wrote recently of Kalu’s drawings: “They are riotous and rhythmic, purposeful and compelling. There’s no fudging. Kalu deserves to win this year’s Turner Prize.”
After meeting Kalu, I find out more about ActionSpace from Sheryll Catto, its chief executive.
The organisation was founded in the 1960s. It was, says Catto, a “performance and participatory art co-operative”. It became a charity in 1984. From 2000, it developed a clear focus on the visual arts.
Catto joined 18 years ago and, for most of that time, shared a co-director role with Barbara van Heel. When van Heel left two years ago, Catto was appointed sole chief executive and artistic director. There is also a business director.
Funding comes from a number of sources, significantly from the Arts Council.
Catto tells me that it is fundamental that all the work comes from the artists so, while ActionSpace supports them, it does not guide or collaborate with them in any way.
She is sick of people asking: “Is it really their work?” She tells me: “We have to push back now.
I say: ‘Sorry, I don’t understand that question.’”
Catto mentions, by way of example, ActionSpace artist Ian Wornast, who has just completed a large commission for Unilever.
“His work is so intricate and has so many intermingled patterns. And someone will say: ‘Well did you show him how to do it?’
“How could I possibly have told him how to do that? Have you looked at this work? Have you seen how intricate it is? How could you possibly tell someone how to do that?”
Partly in response to such attitudes, ActionSpace often holds live art-making events and workshops. Once people see the artists in action, purposefully making their art, they don’t question whether it is their own work or not.
As for what makes an ActionSpace artist, Catto says the creatives must be self-motivated. “We are always looking for people who have a compulsion to make. Once you have that, it will go somewhere. Wherever it goes, it will go somewhere.
“But we are not looking for everyone to be a Nnena. We are looking for them to develop their practice however they want. There is no house style.”
Taking down barriers
I ask about other artists who must inevitably miss out. Catto recognises “if you commit to these people, you can’t commit to those people” but ActionSpace also supports other studios and galleries who help artists.
She adds: “We really feel passionate about the benefit of taking part in art and culture. A lot of what we do is getting rid of the barriers so that people can take part either as creators or audiences.”
Back in the main studio, her work spread across a large table, artist Linda Bell is creating what appear to be giant mobiles with brightly coloured ribbons and other items tied on by hand and dangling from them.
“It’s not like people have given her stuff,” explains Hollinshead. “She will have come up with that. It’s not just how she has brought shapes together and materials but also her desire to move them.”
It is all interactive and, in contrast to Kalu’s practice, Bell’s work gets swung about, worn – all sorts of things happen to it. It’s much more immersive.
Hollinshead says: “I feel like we really have found her creative heart and we are able to let her just fly with it.
“The next stage is to get that work out there and for her not just to do workshops and live events, but for people to see the actual art works as beautiful objects in their own right. Everything moves. Watch out for her. Turner Prize, next person: Linda Bell.”
