London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Turner Prize: Windrush memorial artist Veronica Ryan wins for 'poetic' sculptures

Turner Prize: Windrush memorial artist Veronica Ryan wins for 'poetic' sculptures

Sculptor Veronica Ryan, who made the UK's first permanent public artwork to honour the Windrush generation, has won this year's Turner Prize.

For her Windrush memorial, Ryan placed giant sculptures of Caribbean fruits on a street in Hackney, east London.

"Power! Visibility!" she shouted after her name was announced at the ceremony.

Ryan, 66, became the oldest winner in the prestigious art award's 38-year history when she picked up the £25,000 cheque at the event in Liverpool.

"Better late than never," she said afterwards, telling BBC culture editor Katie Razzall it was "overwhelming" to win.

Ryan wore her late father's hat to the ceremony

Ryan was born on Monserrat before moving to the UK as a toddler, and her art uses the fruits, seeds and even volcanic ash from her home island.

Her winning works included the custard apple, breadfruit and soursop sculptures that were unveiled in Hackney in October 2021.

Her career has been "an incredible struggle" at times, she explained. "There were 20 years, almost, when no-one was paying attention to my work."


'Making work from rubbish'


But she credited her upbringing in a thrifty family for giving her an attitude that enabled her to make art in lean times with whatever materials she had to hand.

She thanked people "who've looked out for me when I wasn't visible and I was making work from rubbish", adding: "But actually some of the rubbish [works] are some of the most important works, I think."

Ryan's marble and bronze fruit sculptures were inspired by her memories of visiting Hackney's Ridley Road Market as a child


She also won for an exhibition in Bristol last year that featured cocoa pods, avocado stones and orange peel.

Crocheted bags made from fishing line were included, as well as tea-stained medical pillows that were made during the pandemic to reflect acts of care and nurturing.

Ryan wore her father's hat as she accepted the award and paid tribute to her family, including three late siblings, on stage. "They were fantastic people and I think they're looking at us right now, and they're proud," she told the audience.

Turner Prize judges praised Ryan's "really poetic" art, which uses "things that normally are thrown away or lost"

Ryan's Turner Prize exhibits include long crocheted sacks made from fishing lines, containing avocado stones, drift seeds and other items


Art critic Louisa Buck told BBC Radio 4's Front Row the moment Ryan won was "incredibly moving".

"It obviously means a huge amount, in her dad's hat up there, having been overlooked for a long, long time," she said.

"She is a great, great artist, and she really works with stuff, and she makes stuff speak."

Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson, who co-chaired this year's jury, said Ryan's work had "a quiet but very compelling presence".

"There's a kind of subtle autobiographical component to the work, and the jury feel that she's extending the language of modern contemporary sculpture in new and subtle ways," he said.

'A sense of beachcombing'


Ryan's was "perhaps the most abstract and elusive work" of this year's four nominees, he added.

"But it's quite insistent. And it's ultimately really poetic as a sculptural practice - but you're aware that this poetry is a result of working with the most humble forms, things that normally are thrown away or lost.

"There's a sense of beachcombing to how the materials are found, kept and brought back to life. And I think that is something that people can relate to."

The prize comes a year after Ryan was made an OBE for services to art. Farquharson said the Turner was not intended as a "lifetime achievement award", noting that her work had taken "a very interesting turn over the last year or two".

Ryan received the trophy from Frankie Goes To Hollywood frontman Holly Johnson at Liverpool's St George's Hall on Tuesday.

The three other nominees - Heather Phillipson, Ingrid Pollard and Sin Wai Kin - will receive £10,000 each.

Before announcing the winner, Johnson referred to the fact that there were three women nominated, with the fourth contender being non binary.

"It's about time, after the years of misogyny in the art world where women were only good for baring their breasts and reclining on couches, it's about time they were nominated and held in high esteem," he told the audience.

The Turner Prize is Britain's most well-known - and often most controversial - award for contemporary art, and Liverpool is the first city outside London to host the ceremony and accompanying exhibition more than once.

Ryan is the first individual artist to pick up the award since 2018.

In 2019, all five nominees asked to share it rather than having one winner; in 2020, the pandemic meant it was replaced with 10 artist bursaries; and last year all the nominees were collectives who helped to "inspire social change through art".


"We are visible people!" Veronica Ryan accepts the award


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×