Yinka Shonibare MBE

Yinka Shonibare MBE (b. 1962 London, England) moved to Lagos, Nigeria, at the age of three; he currently lives and works in the East End of London. He received his MFA from Goldsmiths College, graduating as part of the Young British Artists generation. Through a variety of mediums, Shonibare’s work examines the implications of colonialism and postcolonialism in an interconnected world. In 2013, a major survey show was mounted at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK, and travelled in part to Royal Museums Greenwich/The Queen’s House, London; GL Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark; Gdańska Galeria Miejska, Gdansk, Poland; and Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Wrocław, Poland. In 2014, Shonibare was the subject of the first contemporary art exhibition at The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia. Shonibare was elected to membership in the Royal Academy in 2016. His work is included in many prestigious collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; The Museum of Modern Art, New York City; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome; Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art and Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Tate Collection, London; VandenBroek Foundation, the Netherlands; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, among others. Shonibare was a Turner Prize nominee in 2004, and in 2005 he was awarded the decoration of Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, a title that he officially added onto his professional name. In 2010, the artist’s sculpture Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle was selected for the prestigious Fourth Plinth commission series in London’s Trafalgar Square and was on view until January 2012. The Royal Opera House, London, commissioned Globe Head Ballerina (2012) to be displayed outside the Royal Opera House, overlooking Russell Street in Covent Garden.