Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA (b. 1962) is a British-Nigerian artist whose work incisively interrogates colonial histories, cultural identity and the legacy of empire through a distinct visual language that blends irony, opulence and subversion. Born in London and raised in Lagos, Shonibare returned to the UK as a teenager and studied at Byam Shaw School of Art and later Goldsmiths, where he became associated with the generation that redefined British art in the 1990s.

Shonibare is best known for his use of Dutch wax-print textiles — commercially manufactured fabric associated with West African dress — which he employs to costume headless mannequins in elaborate historical tableaux. These theatrical figures re-stage scenes drawn from European art, literature and political history, often turning symbols of power and refinement into complex commentaries on hybridity, privilege and violence. Works such as The Swing (after Fragonard) (2001) reimagine canonical images through a postcolonial lens, challenging received narratives of taste, class and authority.

His practice spans sculpture, photography, film and installation, and is unified by a sharp conceptual clarity and visual exuberance. Throughout, Shonibare addresses the entangled relationship between Africa and Europe, often invoking Enlightenment ideals to expose their contradictions and exclusions.

Awarded a CBE in 2019 and elected to the Royal Academy in 2013, Shonibare has become a leading voice in contemporary art. His work invites viewers to confront the legacies of empire not as distant history but as ongoing forces that shape identity, mobility and power.