Glasgow-born Jasleen Kaur has won this year's Turner Prize. The Glasgow School Of Art (GSA) silversmithing and jewellery graduate won the £25,000 prize for her exhibition Alter Altar at the city’s Tramway arts centre.

Kaur’s winning exhibition delves into cultural inheritance, autobiography, assimilation and the multifaceted nature of British identity. Her sculptures, crafted from everyday objects, are brought to life through immersive soundscapes, and feature family photographs, an Axminster carpet, a vintage Ford Escort draped in an oversized doily, Irn-Bru and kinetic hand bells. Together, these elements weave a narrative reflecting Kaur’s upbringing within Glasgow’s Sikh community.

Last week, we placed Kaur at number two in our annual Hot 100. Kaur joins a feted list of nominees and winners from the GSA, further cementing the city’s credentials as a hive of contemporary art, with fellow nominee Delaine Le Bas also initially presenting her work at Tramway.

Speaking to us last year, Kaur explained ‘When I was invited to have a show at Tramway, the local geography is what came to my mind first. I was born a few blocks away and it’s where my mum and granny still live, down the road from Kenmure Street, the site of community resistance against the deportation of two Sikh men in 2021. Next door is the newly built gurdwara, a place of communal worship that was also a site of political education for me growing up.’

The artist is renowned for her exploration of identity and migration. We described Alter Altar as an exhibition that ‘reimagines tradition through a series of installations and kinetic, sonic sculptures. Created with objects full of cultural and personal resonance (like litre bottles of Irn-Bru, a football scarf and family photographs), Kaur looks to the everyday to find new meaning in old myths and customs. Perhaps her best-known work, “Sociomobile” (on display at Alter Altar), is a sonically enhanced Ford Escort covered in a giant crocheted doily, linking her dad’s first car to "his migrant desires” through the tactile nature of cotton and its complex ties to the legacies of Empire.’

Professor Penny Macbeth, director of The Glasgow School Of Art, said, ‘It is an honour to see GSA School Of Design graduate Jasleen Kaur secure this year’s Turner Prize, and we wish her the warmest congratulations on her exceptional success. Jasleen’s work reflecting on her Sikh upbringing in Glasgow celebrates the rich and diverse culture which exists in our city, showing not only the ways in which we choose to define ourselves, but also how we must both preserve and challenge our own traditions. Like Jasleen, many GSA graduates continue work in the city after graduating, investing their distinctive talents, growing the creative ecosystem that allows artists and designers to work together, cross discipline boundaries and make exciting work.’

The Turner Prize exhibition of Jasleen Kaur and all nominees continues at Tate Britain until Sunday 16 February 2025; main picture: Robin Christian Silas.