Research Guides: Art on the Davidson College Campus: Featured Sculptors and Artists: Yinka Shonibare

About Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA (b. 1962) is a London-born artist best known for his textile and sculptural works. After studying at the Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art, London, he received his MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London. Shonibare defines his interdisciplinary artistic practice as drawing on "citations of Western art history and literature to question the validity of contemporary cultural and national identities within the context of globalization. Through examining race, class and the construction of cultural identity, his works comment on the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe, and their respective economic and political histories."

For more information about Yinka Shonibare, please see the following:

Wind Sculpture (SG) I

Shonibare, Yinka. Wind Sculpture (SG) I, 2018. Steel armature with hand painted fiberglass resin cast. Davidson College.

Article on Wind Sculpture Installation at Davidson College

Works by Yinka Shonibare

The American Library Installation
Shonibare's project "The American Library," featuring thousands of books as a "celebration of the diversity of the American population" and serving as "an instigator of discovery and debate" (The American Library).
Museum of Modern Art
Bio, works, exhibitions, media, and more on Shonibare from MoMA in New York.
Stephen Friedman Gallery
Bio, images, exhibitions, news, and more on Shonibare from the Stephen Friedman Gallery in London.
Cristea Roberts Gallery
Bio, selected works, podcast audio, and more on Shonibare from the Cristea Roberts Gallery in London.
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Images and information on Shonibare's exhibition at the MCA in Sydney, Australia.
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
Description of Shonibare's exhibition FOCUS at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas.
Artstor
Over 80 images of Shonibare's artworks, accessible through the Davidson College subscription for the Artstor database.

Articles about Yinka Shonibare

Finding a Place: Nigerian Artists in the Contemporary Art World
Article on a new generation of Nigerian artists, including Shonibare, in the late 1980s whose works begin to become known in the Western art world, written by Olu Oguibe from Art Journal in 1999 (PDF available).
Yinka Shonibare: Re-Dressing History
Discussion on Shonibare's use of cloth and textile, which serve as a metaphor for the complex connection between Africa and Europe, written by Nancy Hynes in the journal African Arts in 2001.
Global Tendencies: Globalism and the Large-Scale Exhibition
Round table dialogue with multiple curators and artists, including Shonibare, on global exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, with a intro from Tim Griffin in Artforum International in 2003.
Yinka Shonibare
Interview with Shonibare on his works and creative techniques by Anthony Downey in BOMB Magazine in 2005.
Yinka Shonibare: The Past is Not the Past
Article on Shonibare's works and projects in the context of colonialism by Ladi’Sasha Jones from The Art Momentum in 2018 (includes pictures of Wind Sculpture (SG) I).
Yinka Shonibare: 'You Don't Want the Next Generation to be Full of Hate'
Interview with Shonibare on his prior installations and upcoming exhibitions, by Tim Lewis from The Guardian in 2021.
Spotlight: Yinka Shonibare
Interview with Shonibare on his life and career, focusing on the cultural influences of his work, by Subi Shah in the New Internationalist in 2021.
“I Don’t Care What People Think. As Artists, We Have to Express Ourselves”: Yinka Ilori in Conversation with Yinka Shonibare
Interview with Shonibare on his personal identity and artistic process with guest editor Yinka Ilori from It's Nice That in 2021.
Yinka Shonibare – The Artist Celebrating African Culture and Identity
Bio of Shonibare with information on a variety of his works by Elizabeth Samuels in Black History Month 2023.
An Artist Pushes Back Against Cultural Colonialism
Article on Shonibare's artistic career, recent exhibitions, and use of Dutch wax fabric textiles as commentary on colonialism, by Laura van Straaten from the New York Times in 2023.

Books about Yinka Shonibare

Contemporary Textiles: The Fashion of Fine Art by Nadine Käthe Monem
Comprehensive history of over 50 artists, including Shonibare, on their fine art textile work in the contemporary era (published 2008).
Contemporary African Art Since 1980 by Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu
Chronological review featuring illustrations of works from over 160 contemporary African artists, including Shonibare, encompassing a variety of mediums (published in 2009).
Travel & See : Black Diaspora Art Practices Since the 1980s by Kobena Mercer
Selection of essays critiquing "the cross-cultural aesthetic practice of African American and black British artists... to show how their refiguring of visual representations of blackness transform perceptions of race" (published in 2016, quotation from book description).
Satires of Power In Yoruba Visual Culture by Yomi Ola
Satirical content from select Nigerian artists, including Shonibare, focusing on Yoruba cultural works (published in 2013).
Black Bodies, White Gold: Art, Cotton, and Commerce in the Atlantic World by Anna Arabindan-Kesson
Art historical essays on the visual commodity of cotton in the context of the slave trade and colonialism, discussed in relation to contemporary artworks by artists including Shonibare (published in 2021).
Black Artists in British Art: A History Since the 1950s by Eddie Chambers
Historical review of Black artists in Britain since the 1950s, with a chapter on contemporary artists Shonibare, Chris Ofili, and Steve McQueen (published in 2019).
Living Cargo: How Black Britain Performs its Past by Steve Blevins
Discussion of contemporary Black British artists, such as Shonibare, across a range of cultural and creative mediums, including film, fashion, fine art, and more (published in 2016).
Fashion & War in Popular Culture by Denise N. Rall
Book on the intersection between fashion and the military, examining the textile art and design of wartime with a chapter on Shonibare's Dutch wax works (published in 2014).

Exhibition Catalogs from Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare, MBE
Catalog of Shonibare's travelling mixed media exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia, the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York, and the National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC, in 2008-10 (updated version from 2014 also available at the Davidson College Library).
Yinka Shonibare MBE: Magic Ladders
Catalog of Shonibare's exhibition from January 24-April 21 at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia in 2014.
Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora
Catalog of a multi-artist exhibition featuring Shonibare held November 14-March 1 at the Museum for African Art in New York in 2003-04.
Continental Drift: Installations by Joan Jonas, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Juan Muñoz, Yinka Shonibare
Catalog of an exhibition including works from Shonibare at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, FL in 2004.
Art & Textiles: Fabric as Material and Concept in Modern Art From Klimt to the Present
Catalog of an extensive exhibition comparing over a century's worth of artists and their textile works at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in Wolfsburg, Germany in 2013-14.

Exhibition Reviews on Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare
Review of Shonibare's exhibition at the Brent Sikkema Gallery in New York by Dan Cameron from Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art in 1999.
Yinka Shonibare Mobility
Review of Shonibare's exhibition at the James Cohan Gallery in New York, by Andrea Frohne from Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art in October of 2005.
Yinka Shonibare Garden of Love
Review of Shonibare's exhibition at the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris by Amanda Gilvin from Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art in 2007.
Reviews: Exhibitions - Yinka Shonibare: Stephen Friedman Gallery London November 28 to January 17
Review of Shonibare's exhibition at the Stephen Friedman Gallery in London by Sara Harrison from Art Monthly in 2004.
Recent Exhibitions: Yinka Shonibare
Review of Shonibare's exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London by Elsbeth Court from African Arts in 1993.

Videos about Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare MBE - 'I'm the Rebel Within' artist interview in his East London studio exhibition space from Tate in 2016.

at home: Artists in Conversation | Yinka Shonibare CBE RA in-depth interview with the artist from the Yale Center for British Art in 2021.

Yinka Shonibare MBE: FABRIC--ATION exhibition video featuring 30+ sculpture, film, painting, photography, and other works from Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2013.

A Tale of Today: Yinka Shonibare CBE interview with the artist on his exhibition at the Driehaus Museum in 2019.

Yinka Shonibare - Nigerian Identity and Art's Limitations interview with the artist on his creative process and influences from the DACSforArtists nonprofit in 2017.

Depicting Colonialism and Globalization Through Art 'Full of Contradiction' interview with Shonibare from PBS NewsHour in 2017.