yinka shonibare Born in England in 1962 and raised in Nigeria, Yinka Shonibare currently lives and works in London, where he has gained international attention by exploring issues of race and class through a range of media that includes sculpture, painting, photography, and installation art… He returned to the UK to study Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art, London and Goldsmiths College, London, where he received his Master’s in Fine Art. With the artist's residency space I am currently building in Lagos, I want to actually bring in international artists who will have cultural exchange with the local artists. I like to actually mix the two (and create) something that looks exuberant and then has layers of darkness. "Nelson's Ship in a Bottle" (2010) by Yinka ShonibareRecently, obviously because of all the issues around refugees, I've touched on immigration. I think I'm very happy that people bother to describe me at all! Biography and art, auction, artworks, interview, statement, website: yinka shonibare. Copyright text 2018 by the-artists.org. This is ironic, given that his work consistently subverts colonial narratives and comments on the interrelationship between Africa and Europe.Shonibare is best known for his use of Dutch wax prints. Its international heritage speaks to the colonial trade links between Africa and Europe, and, to Shonibare, wax print is a symbol of African diaspora and identity.The fabric appears again in one of his most recent works, "Creatures of the Mappa Mundi." Yinka Shonibare was born in London, UK in 1962 and grew up in the UK and Lagos, Nigeria. Sometimes it's going back to history or literature, methodology and using other kinds of folklore and narrative to explore contemporary concerns.From Harare to Lagos: Africa's gender fluid designs are defying normsWell , Africa is part of my identity, you know. Yinka Shonibare MBE is a British-Nigerian contemporary artist known for his sculptural installations that explore issues of Post-colonialism. A site-specific artwork by Yinka Shonibare MBE RA is wrapping the RA’s Burlington Gardens building while construction takes place. Artist Biography. I don't necessarily have to define it, it's who I am.I can be called an African artist, a contemporary artist, a British Artist, a British-Nigerian artist. But I don't necessarily think that artists should prescribe the kinds of conversation that people should be having about their work.
Shonibare spoke to CNN about his new work, his upcoming art space in Lagos, and what it means to be a British-African artist.Yinka Shonibare: I think it's interesting if the work does something, if the work is in dialogue with the audience. Stephen Tayo captures the sacred kinship of Nigerian twinsThere is a very young population in Lagos and I think that the interest in the visual arts is really going up. It's a very dynamic place. You hear stories of people unfortunately drowning at sea and you're human, you're bound to be touched by that as an artist. I tend to work more or less with ambivalence in my work, so you find that there might actually be opposing emotions or opposing ideas in the work.