Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1962 London, England

Other name/s: Yinka Shonibare CBE RA

Biography

Artist Yinka Shonibare was born to wealthy Nigerian parents, Olatunji and Laide Shonibare, in London, England on 9 August 1962. He grew up between Lagos, Nigeria, and England. Although his parents were disappointed with his chosen career, he was allowed to attend art school in London. However, just weeks after classes began, Shonibare contracted transverse myelitis, a disorder caused by inflammation of the spinal cord, resulting in a long-term physical disability where one side of his body remains paralysed, requiring the artist, now wheelchair-bound, to work with assistants. He later commented: 'Before the illness, I was more cerebral anyway – as a teenager, I went for solitary walks and wrote poetry – so I guess it didn't have the devastating effect on me that it might have had on someone who was more body-conscious' (Shonibare, 2013). He received his BA at Byam Shaw School of Art (1984–89; now part of Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design) and then an MFA at Goldsmiths’ College (1991; now Goldsmiths, University of London). Caught between the cultures of England and Nigeria, Shonibare was encouraged to make ‘authentic African art’, causing him to ponder the meanings of ‘authenticity’ and ‘multicultural identity’ (Britannica). Despite his work being included in the 1997 exhibition, Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection, his concerns were different to other so-called YBAs. Shonibare’s work explores issues of race and class through painting, sculpture, photography and film, his trademark material, the brightly coloured 'African' batik, a fabric inspired by Indonesian design, mass-produced by the Dutch and eventually sold to colonies in West Africa. In the 1960s the material became a new sign of African identity and independence (WWD, 2003). Beginning to exhibit in 1988, by 1993 Shonibare presented his first one-person exhibition, Double Dutch, at Centre 181 Gallery, London, featuring batik (Oguibe, 1999).

In 1998, Shonibare began taking carefully posed photographs and videos recreating famous British paintings or literary episodes, making himself the black British dandy at centre-stage. Inspired by William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress (1732–34), he satirised the ‘bootstrap-pulling of Margaret Thatcher’s Victorian values, the polished wooden floors and broken club chairs of the Laura Ashley look, and Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy’ (Paul Mellon Centre, 2021). Photographs featured in Diary of a Victorian Dandy (1998) at INIVA (Institute of International Visual Arts) in East London, were also displayed as posters in various London underground stations and were later included in Shonibare’s first major solo exhibition at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 1999, entitled Dressing Down. Other exhibits included painting installations such as Double Dutch (1994) and Baby Blue (1998), alongside installed interiors such as Victorian Philanthropist’s Parlour (1996–97), all of which explore the colonial sub-texts of British cultural histories (Hylton, 1999).

Shonibare began a long-standing partnership with Stephen Friedman Gallery, London in 2003. In 2004 he received a CBE and was a Turner Prize nominee, shortlisted for Double Dutch at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and for his solo show at Stephen Friedman. Despite not winning, it was reported that Shonibare provided Tate Britain’s Turner Prize exhibition with ‘a much-needed burst of colour and vitality’ (Bishop, 2004). The same year he was awarded an MBE, and a year prior he had been made an Honorary Fellow at Goldsmiths’ College. He joined INIVA’s Board of Trustees in 2009. Between 2010 and 2012, his Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle occupied the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. Incorporating his signature batik, the work ‘considers the complexity of British expansion in trade and Empire, made possible through the freedom of the seas that Nelson’s victory provided’ (Mayor of London). It is now housed permanently at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (Government Art Collection), following an Art Fund campaign in 2012.

In 2010, Shonibare received an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art, London and in 2013 was elected a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts. In 2014 he created The British Library, an installation of 6,328 books. Printed in gold leaf on the spines of 2,700 books are the names of first- or second-generation immigrants to Britain, both celebrated and lesser-known, who have made significant contributions to British culture and history. Other books are unmarked, ‘suggesting that the story of immigration in Britain is still being written’. Initially commissioned by HOUSE 2014 and Brighton Festival and shown in the Old Reference Library, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, The British Library was acquired by Tate in 2019 (the year he received his CBE) and opened to the public as part of its free collection displays. In 2020 he received the Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon Award, and in 2021 he presented a major retrospective at the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, followed by his co-ordination of The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. In 2024, he was included in the Royal Academy exhibition Entangled Pasts, 1768–now. Yinka Shonibare continues to live and work in London. His works can be found in many UK public collections, including the V&A and Arts Council Collection.

Related books

Yinka Shonibare, Criminal Ornamentation (London: Hayward Gallery Publishing, 2018)
Stephen Blevins, 'Bespoke History: Redressing the Past, Tailoring the Present, Fashioning the Future', in Living Cargo. How Black Britain Performs Its Past (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2016), pp. 197-242
Madhavi Menon, 'Out of Africa: Yinka Shonibare's Museum of Desire', in Indifference to Difference: On Queer Universalism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015), pp. 25-58
Rachel Kent (ed.), Yinka Shonibare MBE, revised and expanded edition (Munich, London and New York: Prestel, 2014)
Sarah Coulson and Clare Lilley, Yinka Shonibare MBE: Fabric-Action (Wakefield: Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 2013)
Shanti Sumartojo, 'The Fourth Plinth: Creating and Contesting National Identity in Trafalgar Square, 2005-2010', Cultural Geographies, Vol. 20, No. 1, 2013, pp. 67-81
T. J. Demos (ed.), Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography (London: Phaidon, 2006)
Turner Prize 2004 (London: Tate Publishing, 2004), pp. 2001-2002
Sara Harrison, ‘Yinka Shonibare’, Art Monthly, iss. 273, 2004, p. 34-35
Jeff Weinstein, ‘Yinka Shonibare’, Artforum International, Vol. 40, No. 9, 2002, p. 175
Olu Oguibe, 'Finding a Place: Nigerian Artists in the Contemporary Art World', Art Journal, Vol. 58, No. 2, 1999, pp. 30-41
Richard Hylton, ‘Yinka Shoniabre: Dressing Down’, Third Text, Vol. 13, No. 46, 1999, pp. 101-103
Okwui Enwezor, ‘Yinka Shonibare’, Flash Art - International Edition, iss. 197, 1997, pp. 96-97

Public collections

Tate

Related organisations

Byam Shaw School of Art (Student)
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) (Recipient)
Goldsmiths College (Student and Honorary Fellow)
INIVA (Trustee)
Royal Academy of Arts (Royal Academician)
Royal College of Art (Honorary Doctor (Fine Art))
Turner Prize (Nominee)

Selected exhibitions

African Spirits of Modernism, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (2021)
Creatures of the Mappa Mundi, Hereford Cathedral, Hereford (2019)
Cowboy Angels, British Museum, London (2019)
Criminal Ornamentation: Yinka Shonibare Curates the Arts Council Collection, Attenborough Arts Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester (2018-2019)
Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (2019)
Talisman in the Age of Difference, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (2018)
Yinka Shonibare MBE, Howick Place, London (2018)
Yinka Shonibare MBE, Fitzrovia Chapel, London (2018)
End of Empire, Turner Contemporary, Margate (2016)
...and the wall fell away, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (2016)
The William Morris Family Album, William Morris Gallery, London (2015)
The British Library, the Old Reference Library, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Brighton (2014-2019), Collections Display, Tate Modern (2019-present)
Globe Head Ballerina, Royal Opera House, London (2012)
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London (2010, 2014-2022)
Nelson's Ship in a Bottle, Fourth Plinth Commission, London (2010-2012)
Scratch the Surface, National Gallery, London (2007)
White Flag at Half Mast, Hayward Gallery, London (2007)
Turner Prize, Tate Britain, London (2004)
Play with Me, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (2003)
Britannia project, Tate Britain, London (2002)
Yinka Shonibare, Camden Arts Centre, London (2000)
Yinka Shoniabre: Dressing Down, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (1999)
Diary of a Victorian Dandy Project, INIVA, London (1998)
Double Dutch, Centre 181 Gallery, London (1994)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Yinka Shonibare]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Yinka Shonibare artist