Yinka Shonibare
Encyclopedia
Yinka Shonibare, MBE
, (born 1962) is a British-Nigerian artist living in the UK. He readily acknowledges physical disability as part of his identity but creates work in which this is just one strand of a far richer weave.
. After A-levels he went to art school. Shonibare contracted transverse myelitis
, an inflammation across the spinal cord, at the age of seventeen, which resulted in a long term physical disability. Shonibare studied Fine Art, first at Byam Shaw College of Art (now merged with Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design) and then at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he received his MFA in 1991. He then worked as an arts development officer for SHAPE, an organisation which makes arts accessible to disabled people. In 1990 his son Kayode Shonibare-Lewis was born, now an indie game developer and 3D artist.
Shonibare has become well known for his exploration of colonialism
and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalization. Shonibare’s work explores these issues, alongside those of race and class, through the media of painting, sculpture, photography and, more recently, film and performance. Using this wide range of media, Shonibare examines, in particular, the construction of identity and tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe and their respective economic and political histories. Mining Western art history and literature, he asks what constitutes our collective contemporary identity today. Having described himself as a ‘post-colonial’ hybrid, Shonibare questions the meaning of cultural and national definitions.
He was notably commissioned by Okwui Enwezor at Documenta 10
in 2002 to create his most recognised work ‘Gallantry and Criminal Conversation’ that launched him on an international stage. He has exhibited at the Venice Biennial and internationally at leading museums worldwide. In 2003 he became an honorary Fellow of Goldsmiths' College. Shonibare was a Turner prize
nominee in 2004 and was awarded the decoration of Member of the “Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” or MBE. In September 2008, his major mid-career survey commenced at the MCA Sydney and toured to the Brooklyn Museum, New York in June 2009 and the Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC in October 2009. On July 2, 2010, Shonibare was made Honorary Doctor (Fine Artist) of the Royal College of Art
.
and was the subject of a major midcareer survey of work in both Australia and the USA. For the exhbition in 2009 at the Brooklyn Museum
, New York
, a site-specific installation was created for the presentation titled Mother and Father Worked Hard So I Can Play. This installation was on view in several of the Museum’s period rooms. Another site-specific installation, Party Time—Re-Imagine America: A Centennial Commission was simultaneously on view at the Newark Museum
in Newark, New Jersey
, from July 1, 2009, to January 3, 2010, in the dining room of the museum’s 1885 Ballantine House.
Shonibare explores issues of race and class through a range of media that includes sculpture, painting, photography, and installation art. Because of his disability, Shonibare is physically incapable of carrying out the making of the work himself, and relies upon a team of assistants to realize his artistic vision for him. In this context, conceptualism takes on a new angle.
A key material in Shonibare's work since 1994 are the brightly coloured 'African' fabrics (Dutch wax-printed cotton) that he buys himself from Brixton market in London.
"But actually, the fabrics are not really authentically African the way people think," says Shonibare. "They prove to have a crossbred cultural background quite of their own. And it’s the fallacy of that signification that I like. It’s the way I view culture — it’s an artificial construct." Today the main exporters of 'African' fabric from Europe are based in Manchester in the UK and Vlisco from Helmond in the Netherlands.
He has these fabrics made up into Victorian dresses, covering sculptures of alien figures or stretched onto canvases and thickly painted over.
Sometimes, famous paintings are re-created using headless dummies with the 'Africanised' clothing instead of their original costumes, for example Gainsborough's Mr and Mrs Andrews Without Their Heads (1998), Reverend on Ice (2005) (after The Rev Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch attributed to Sir Henry Raeburn) and
The Swing (after Fragonard) (2001). An added layer to the Fragonard piece is that the fabric used is printed with the 'Dior
' logo (though it is obviously not real Dior fabric).
Shonibare also takes carefully posed photographs and videos recreating famous British paintings or stories from literature e.g., The Rake's Progress by Hogarth or Dorian Grey by Wilde but with himself taking centre stage as an alternative, black British dandy. Examples of these works are Diary of A Victorian Dandy (1998) and Dorian Gray (2001)
Other works include printed ceramics, and cloth covered shoes, upholstery, walls and bowls.
in 2004 for his Double Dutch exhibition at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
in Rotterdam
and for his solo show at the Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
. Of the four nominees, he seemed to be the most popular with the general public that year. Out of visitors voting on a BBC website poll, 64% said that his work was their favourite.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, (born 1962) is a British-Nigerian artist living in the UK. He readily acknowledges physical disability as part of his identity but creates work in which this is just one strand of a far richer weave.
Life and career
Yinka Shonibare was born in London in 1962. His family moved to Lagos, Nigeria when he was three. At 16, he returned to Britain to do his A-levelsGCE Advanced Level
The Advanced Level General Certificate of Education, commonly referred to as an A-level, is a qualification offered by education institutions in England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Cameroon, and the Cayman Islands...
. After A-levels he went to art school. Shonibare contracted transverse myelitis
Transverse myelitis
Transverse myelitis is a neurological disorder caused by an inflammatory process of the spinal cord, and can cause axonal demyelination. The name is derived from Greek referring to the "spinal cord", and the suffix -itis, which denotes inflammation...
, an inflammation across the spinal cord, at the age of seventeen, which resulted in a long term physical disability. Shonibare studied Fine Art, first at Byam Shaw College of Art (now merged with Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design) and then at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he received his MFA in 1991. He then worked as an arts development officer for SHAPE, an organisation which makes arts accessible to disabled people. In 1990 his son Kayode Shonibare-Lewis was born, now an indie game developer and 3D artist.
Shonibare has become well known for his exploration of colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalization. Shonibare’s work explores these issues, alongside those of race and class, through the media of painting, sculpture, photography and, more recently, film and performance. Using this wide range of media, Shonibare examines, in particular, the construction of identity and tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe and their respective economic and political histories. Mining Western art history and literature, he asks what constitutes our collective contemporary identity today. Having described himself as a ‘post-colonial’ hybrid, Shonibare questions the meaning of cultural and national definitions.
He was notably commissioned by Okwui Enwezor at Documenta 10
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
in 2002 to create his most recognised work ‘Gallantry and Criminal Conversation’ that launched him on an international stage. He has exhibited at the Venice Biennial and internationally at leading museums worldwide. In 2003 he became an honorary Fellow of Goldsmiths' College. Shonibare was a Turner prize
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
nominee in 2004 and was awarded the decoration of Member of the “Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” or MBE. In September 2008, his major mid-career survey commenced at the MCA Sydney and toured to the Brooklyn Museum, New York in June 2009 and the Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC in October 2009. On July 2, 2010, Shonibare was made Honorary Doctor (Fine Artist) of the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
.
Work
His first solo exhibition was in 1989 at Byam Shaw Gallery, London. During 2008, he showed at the James Cohan GalleryJames Cohan Gallery
The James Cohan Gallery is one of the prominent contemporary art galleries based in New York. Since 2008, it has also had premises in Shanghai.- History :...
and was the subject of a major midcareer survey of work in both Australia and the USA. For the exhbition in 2009 at the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, a site-specific installation was created for the presentation titled Mother and Father Worked Hard So I Can Play. This installation was on view in several of the Museum’s period rooms. Another site-specific installation, Party Time—Re-Imagine America: A Centennial Commission was simultaneously on view at the Newark Museum
Newark Museum
The Newark Museum is the largest museum in New Jersey, USA. It holds fine collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the ancient world...
in Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
, from July 1, 2009, to January 3, 2010, in the dining room of the museum’s 1885 Ballantine House.
Shonibare explores issues of race and class through a range of media that includes sculpture, painting, photography, and installation art. Because of his disability, Shonibare is physically incapable of carrying out the making of the work himself, and relies upon a team of assistants to realize his artistic vision for him. In this context, conceptualism takes on a new angle.
A key material in Shonibare's work since 1994 are the brightly coloured 'African' fabrics (Dutch wax-printed cotton) that he buys himself from Brixton market in London.
"But actually, the fabrics are not really authentically African the way people think," says Shonibare. "They prove to have a crossbred cultural background quite of their own. And it’s the fallacy of that signification that I like. It’s the way I view culture — it’s an artificial construct." Today the main exporters of 'African' fabric from Europe are based in Manchester in the UK and Vlisco from Helmond in the Netherlands.
He has these fabrics made up into Victorian dresses, covering sculptures of alien figures or stretched onto canvases and thickly painted over.
Sometimes, famous paintings are re-created using headless dummies with the 'Africanised' clothing instead of their original costumes, for example Gainsborough's Mr and Mrs Andrews Without Their Heads (1998), Reverend on Ice (2005) (after The Rev Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch attributed to Sir Henry Raeburn) and
The Swing (after Fragonard) (2001). An added layer to the Fragonard piece is that the fabric used is printed with the 'Dior
Christian Dior
Christian Dior , was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, also called Christian Dior.-Life:...
' logo (though it is obviously not real Dior fabric).
Shonibare also takes carefully posed photographs and videos recreating famous British paintings or stories from literature e.g., The Rake's Progress by Hogarth or Dorian Grey by Wilde but with himself taking centre stage as an alternative, black British dandy. Examples of these works are Diary of A Victorian Dandy (1998) and Dorian Gray (2001)
Other works include printed ceramics, and cloth covered shoes, upholstery, walls and bowls.
Turner Prize nomination in 2004
Shonibare was shortlisted for the Turner PrizeTurner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
in 2004 for his Double Dutch exhibition at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is the main art museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The museum began in 1847 with the collection of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans . Much of the museum's original collection was destroyed in a disastrous 1864 fire...
in Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
and for his solo show at the Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Of the four nominees, he seemed to be the most popular with the general public that year. Out of visitors voting on a BBC website poll, 64% said that his work was their favourite.
Selected artworks/exhibitions
- 1991 Dysfunctional Family - cuddly looking sculptures of aliens covered in fabric
- 1994 Double Dutch - small deep squares of stretched fabric painted over, on a shocking pink wall
- 1997 SensationSensation exhibitionSensation was an exhibition of the collection of contemporary art owned by Charles Saatchi, including many works by Young British Artists, which first took place 18 September – 28 December 1997 at the Royal Academy of Art in London and later toured to Berlin and New York...
A group exhibition drawn from the personal collection of Charles SaatchiCharles SaatchiCharles Saatchi is the co-founder with his brother Maurice of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and led that business - the world's largest advertising agency in the 1980s - until they were forced out in 1995. In the same year the Saatchi brothers formed a new agency called M&C...
- Shonibare had two Victorian style dresses in the show in the style of Dressing Down - 1997 Cha Cha Cha - a pair of 1950s women's shoes, covered in fabric and encased in a perspex cube.
- 1997 Feather Pink More squares of fabric, painted on both the front and edges, with a white background
- 1998 Diary of A Victorian Dandy - photographs of Shonibare in group setups reminiscent of A Rake's ProgressA Rake's ProgressA Rake's Progress is a series of eight paintings by 18th century English artist William Hogarth. The canvases were produced in 1732–33 then engraved and published in print form in 1735...
by Hogarth, commissioned for the London Underground - 1999 Dressing Down exhibition at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK.
- 2000 Vacation - Space suited men covered in African fabric, busy up at the ceilings by the chandeliers
- 2001 Dorian Gray - atmospheric black and white photographs of Shonibare as Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's Dorian Gray - 2001 The Swing (after Fragonard) - a headless lifesize recreation of Fragonard's model clothed in African fabric
- 2001 Henry James and Hendrik C. Andersen - two clothed headless lifesize models of the writer James and the sculptor Andersen, symbolising their friendship and commissioned by The British School at Rome
- 2001 The Three Graces Three headless lifesize models of women of varying proportions, in Victorian dress made from African fabric
- 2002 Gallantry and Criminal Conversation - an installation including a suspended coach, wooden chests and 18 headless 18th century figures engaged in copulation
- 2003 Maxa Maxa detail - circles of partially painted fabric on a deep blue wall
- 2004 Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) - his first film, showing the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden through dance
- 2005 Lady on Unicycle - a headless Victorian lady in knickerbockers joyously caught frozen mid-cycle
- 2008 Yinka Shonibare: Major Solo Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
- 2009 Yinka Shonibare: Major Solo Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, USA.
- 2009-2010 Yinka Shonibare MBE: Major Solo Exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (organized and toured by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia)
- 2010 Nelson's Ship in a Bottle - A 1:30 scale model of Nelson's HMS VictoryHMS VictoryHMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805....
takes over London's Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth Exhibition Space - 2010 Before and After Modernism: Byam Shaw, Rex Vicat Cole, Yinka Shonibare MBE