Yinka Shonibare CBE

b. 1962, London

Yinka Shonibare was born in 1962 in London and moved to Lagos, Nigeria at the age of three. He now lives and works in London. His work explores issues of race and class through the media of painting, sculpture, photography and film. Having described himself as a ‘post-colonial’ hybrid, Shonibare questions the meaning of cultural and national definitions. His trademark material is the brightly coloured ‘African’ batik fabric he buys at Brixton market. The fabric was inspired by Indonesian design, mass-produced by the Dutch and eventually sold to the colonies in West Africa. In the 1960s the material became a new sign of African identity and independence.

Yinka Shonibare is an internationally well renowned artist and in just 2023 alone exhibited at Lagos Peckham Repeat at South London Gallery, To Be Free at Salisbury Cathedral, Trace at Haus der Kunst in Munich, The Art of Fabric at Kunsthalle Vogelmann in Germany, Sharjah Biennial 15 at Sharjah in UAE, Between Before and After at the Cristea Roberts Gallery in London, The Fest at MAK in Vienna, Austria and Constellations at Kura Kura in Bali, Indonesia.

Courtesy of Yinka Shonibare CBE and Cristea Roberts Gallery, London.