Korean-Canadian artist Zadie Xa (Korean name Yumi Cha; b. 1983) has been shortlisted for this year's Turner Prize, the UK’s most prestigious contemporary art award.
 
On April 23, Tate Britain, which organizes the Turner Prize, announced the four finalists for the 2025 edition: Scottish artist Nnena Kalu, Iraqi artist Mohammed Sami, Korean-Canadian artist Zadie Xa, and British artist Rene Matić. 

Born in Canada, Zadie Xa is currently based in London and explores themes of hybrid diasporic identity and otherness through her work, drawing from personal experiences. Influenced by her Korean mother, Xa often incorporates elements of traditional Korean folklore and culture — such as mythological figures like Grandmother Mago, Princess Bari, and the nine-tailed fox (Kumiho) — as well as traditional Korean patchwork techniques like ’bojagi’ into her paintings and installations.

Zadie Xa was shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2025 for her work Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything (2025), presented at the Sharjah Biennial 16 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
 
Created in collaboration with artist Benito Mayor Vallejo, the installation combines large-scale paintings, bojagi (traditional Korean patchwork), and approximately 650 brass bells inspired by Korean shamanistic rituals. Through imagery of the ocean, Xa evokes narratives of ancestry, memory, and the Earth, expanding East Asian imagination through a contemporary visual language. 

Regarding this, the Turner Prize jury commented, “Zadie Xa’s vibrant sculptures, sound works, and installations, incorporating elements such as Korean shamanic brass bells and bojagi (traditional Korean patchwork), intricately convey profound reflection and a captivating artistic world.”

The Turner Prize, established in 1984, is named after the 19th-century British landscape painter William Turner (1775–1851). It is awarded to British artists or artists who primarily work in the UK. 

The works of the shortlisted Turner Prize artists will be on view at the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford from September 27, 2025, to February 22, 2026. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony held in West Yorkshire on December 9, 2025. The winner will receive a prize of £25,000 (approximately 47 million KRW).

References

• 타데우스 로팍(Thaddaeus Ropac), Zadie Xa shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2025
• 2025 터너상 (Turner Prize 2025)
• 동아일보, 한국계 작가 제이디 차, 英 터너상 최종후보에, 2025.04.25
• 스페이스 K, 제이디 차 (Space K, Zadie Xa)