Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare was born in London in 1962 and moved to Lagos, Nigeria at the age of three. He returned to the UK to study Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art, London and Goldsmiths College, London, where he received his Master’s in Fine Art.

Shonibare is well known for his exploration of colonialism and post-colonialism within the context of globalization. Working in painting, sculpture, photography, film, and installation, Shonibare’s work examines race, class, and the construction of cultural identity through a sharp political commentary on the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe and their respective economic and political histories. Shonibare uses wry citations of Western art history and literature to question the validity of contemporary cultural and national identities.

Shonibare was a Turner Prize nominee in 2004 and was elected as a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy, London in 2013. In 2004, he was awarded the decoration of Most Excellent Order of the British Empire or MBE, and in 2019, he was made Commander of the same order, or CBE. In March 2021, Shonibare received Whitechapel Gallery’s prestigious Art Icon award, becoming the eighth artist to receive the honor. He received an honorary degree from The Courtauld Institute, London the same year. 

In 2024, the Serpentine, London UK, presented a major solo exhibition of Shonibare’s work titled Suspended States. Shonibare's installation Monument to the Restitution of the Mind and Soul was featured at the Venice Biennale 2024 as part of the Nigerian Pavilion, in the group show Nigeria Imaginary. The artist was also included in the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa.

To mark Sharjah Biennial's 30th anniversary in February 2023, Shonibare was commissioned to create a series of new works for the exhibition. He also unveiled a new outdoor sculpture commissioned by the David Oluwale Memorial Association in Aire Park, Leeds as part of Leeds 2023.

In November 2022, Shonibare hosted the international launch of Guest Artists Space (G. A. S.) Foundation, a non-profit founded and developed by the artist. The Foundation is dedicated to facilitating cultural exchange through residencies, public programs, and exhibition opportunities for creative practitioners from around the world. The live/work residency spaces are set across sites in Lagos and a rural working farm in Ijebu, Ogun State.

The survey solo exhibition, Yinka Shonibare CBE: Planets in My Head, opened in April 2022 at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan followed by the unveiling of two new public sculptural works: Wind Sculpture (TG) I at the Gene Leahy Mall, Omaha, Nebraska, and Wind Sculpture in Bronze I at Royal Djurgården, Stockholm.

The artist’s major commission with the Public Art Fund, Wind Sculpture (SG) I, was installed at Doris C. Freedman Plaza, Central Park from March 7 through October 14, in 2018. The same year, FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art presented The American Library at the Cleveland Public Library. The British Library was acquired by the Tate London in 2019. He was also selected to coordinate the Royal Academy of Arts 253rd Summer Exhibition in September 2021.

In 2010, Shonibare’s first public art commission, Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London. In 2008, his mid-career survey commenced at Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and toured to the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. In 2002, Shonibare was commissioned by Okwui Enwezor to create one of his most recognized installations, Gallantry and Criminal Conversation for Documenta XI.

Shonibare’s works are included in notable collections internationally, including the Tate Collection, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome; Pérez Art Museum Miami in Florida and VandenBroek Foundation, The Netherlands.