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1962
Born London, England
Lives and works in London
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2013
Pearl Lam, Hong Kong
2012
Yinka Shonibare MBE: Addio del Passato, SCAD, Savannah, Georgia (October 27 – January 27, 2013)
Addio del Passato, James Cohan Gallery, New York, February 16 – March 24
2011
Yinka Shonibare, MBE, Alcalà 31, Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, travelling to the
Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Canary Islands (October 28 - January 28,
2012).
2010
Nelson's Ship in a Bottle, Fourth Plinth Commission, Trafalgar Square, London, UK
Yinka Shonibare: Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Yinka Shonibare, MBE: Sculpture, Photography and Film, Western Michigan University, MI
Looking Up: Yinka Shonibare, MBE, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco
2009
Party Time: Re-Imagine America - A Centennial Commission by Yinka Shonibare MBE,
Newark Museum, July 1, 2009 – January 3, 2010.
Mother and Father Worked Hard So I Can Play, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY,
Travelling to the St Louis Art Museum (December 18, 2009 – March 14, 2010)
A Flying Machine For Every Man, Woman and Child, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa
Barbara, CA
2008
A Flying Machine For Every Man, Woman and Child, Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL
Yinka Shonibare, MBE, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, travelling to the
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY and the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC
Prospero's Monsters, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY
Odile and Odette, Savannah College of Art and Design, ACA Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2007
Le jardin d'amour, Musée de quai Branly, Paris
The Hayward Flag Project, The Hayward Gallery, London, UK
2006
Flower Time, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
Yinka Shonibare, Speed Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
2005
Mobility, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY
Yinka Shonibare Selects: Works from the Permanent Collection, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York, NY
Collaborative film/dance project with the Royal Opera House and the Africa Center,
London, UK
2004
Yinka Shonibare, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Yinka Shonibare, Double Dutch, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2003
Play With Me, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
2002
Double Dress, organized by the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel.
Traveled to KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; and Padiglione d'arte contemporanea, Milan, Italy (catalogue)
2001
Christmas Tree Project, Tate Britain, London, UK
Britannia project, Tate Britain, London, UK
Be-muse, The British School in Rome, Rome, Italy (catalogue)
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, USA (brochure)
Camouflage, Johannesburg, South Africa (catalogue)
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
2000
Effective, defective, creative, permanent video installation, Welcome Wing, Science Museum, London, UK
Camden Arts Centre, London, UK
Affectionate Men, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
InIVA tour of Diary of a Victorian Dandy Project. Traveled to Castle Museum, Nottingham; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle; Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, UK
1999
Dressing Down, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK. Toured to Henie Onstad Art Centre, Norway; Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland; Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, UK; Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno; Brent Sikkema, New York, USA
1998
Diary of a Victorian Dandy, site-specific project on the London Underground, commissioned and produced by inIVA, London, UK
Alien Obsessives, Mum, Dad and the Kids, Tablet, the Tabernacle, London; Norwich Art Gallery, UK
1997
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
Present Tense contemporary project series, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
1995
Sun, Sea and Sand, BAC Gallery, London, UK
1994
Double Dutch, Centre 181 Gallery, London, UK
1989
Byam Shaw Gallery, London, UK
Bedford Hill Gallery, London, UK
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2013
Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, Smithsonian Institute, National Museum of African Art, Washington DC (April 24, 2013 - December 2013)
2012
The Progress of Love, Pulitzer Foundation, St. Louis, MO (November 16 – April 20, 2013)
Histories of the Colonial screening event for Colonial Spectres: A moving Picture Blues film series curated by Christian Kravagna, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (MUMOK), Vienna, Austria (October 24) (Film: Addio del Passato)
9th Baltic Biennial of Contemporary Art, Szczecin, Poland (October 11 – January 13, 2013)
Encounters: Conflict, Dialogue, and Discovery, Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey (July 14 - September 16, 2012)
African Cosmos: Stellar Arts, Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art, Washington DC (June 19 – December 9, 2012)
Art is Enlightenment, Staatliche Musen zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany (May 10 – August 12)
Travelling Light (Government Art Collection), Whitechapel Gallery, London (December 16 – February 26, 2012)
Six Yards Guaranteed Real Dutch Design, Museum of Modern Art, Arnhem Netherlands (January 29 – May 6, 2012)
Cotton: Global Threads, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK (February 11 – May 13 2012)
Block Party, Smiths Row, London, UK (January 14 – March 10, 2012) Travelling to National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland; New Walk Museum & Gallery, Leicester, UK
2011
Made in the UK: Contemporary Art from the Richard Brown Baker Collection, Rhode
Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence, RI
Rewind-Play-Forward, Kaunas Biennial, Kaunas, Lithuania
Environment and Object, Tang Art Museum, New York, NY
Human Nature: Contemporary Art from the Collection, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
I Know Something About Love, Parasol Unit Foundation of Contemporary Art, London, UK
African Interweave: Textile Diasporas, Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida
The Way We Are Now: Selections from the 21c Collection, Cincinnati Art Museum,
United States
2010
Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis, San Francisco, California
Spanish Muse: A Contemporary Response, Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist
University, Dallas, Texas
Eye of the Pacific Rim, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan City, Korea
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, England
Who Knows Tomorrow, Friedrichswerder Church, Berlin, Germany
Until Now: Collecting the Contemporary (1960-2010), Minneapolis Institute of Arts,
Minneapolis, MN
Size DOES Matter, The FLAG Art Foundation, NY
Contemplating the Void, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Pattern I.D., Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
2009
Unbounded: New Art for a New Century, Newark Museum, New Jersey, NY
2008
Nos, Museu de republica, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles, The Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY
The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design without End, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Body Space, Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle, UK
Fourth Plinth Commission, National Gallery, London
Pictures in Series, Fischer Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, NY
2007
African Art Today: An Unbounded Vista, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO (Upcoming November 2007)
Scratch the Surface, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK (Upcoming July 20 – November 4, 2007)
Fashion Accidentally, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (Upcoming May 25 – June 29, 2007)
War and Discontent, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (Upcoming April 10 – August 5, 2007)
Uncomfortable Truths, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Upcoming February 2007)
2006
Primitivism Revisited, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY (December 15 – January 27, 2006)
Alien Nation, ICA, London, England (November 17, 2006 – January 14, 2007)
William Hogarth, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (October 18, 2006 – August 28, 2007);
traveling to Tate Britain (February 7 – April 29, 2007) and Caixa Forum, Madrid, Spain (May 28 -August 26, 2007)
Transvideo, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI
MASCARADA / MASQUERADE, DA2 - Domus Artium 2002, Centro de Arte de Salamanca, Spain
DRESSCODE, Historisches und Völkerkundemuseum, St Gallen, Switzerland
Space is the Place, Independent Curators International, New York, NY
Los Usos de la Pintura II, curated by Julieta González, Espacio 1414, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Ahistoric Occasion: Artists Making History, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art,
North Adams, MA
Acting the Part: Photography as Theatre, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of Continent, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Around the World in 80 Days, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, Uk
2006 Contemporary Commonwealth, The Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia,
Photography: Recent Acquisitions, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, NY
Artificial Afrika, curated by Vernon Reid and C. Daniel Dawson, Gigantic ArtSpace, New York, NY (January 27 – March 17, 2006)
2005
Linkages and Themes in the African Diaspora: Selections from the Eileen Harris
Norton and Peter Norton Contemporary Art Collections, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA (through March 12, 2006)
Woman Women, curated by Adelina von Fürstenberg, Ville de Carouge, Geneve,
Switzerland; traveling to the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy (October 8, 2005 – January 8, 2006); Palais des Beaux Arts/Entrepôt Royal Tour & Taxis (March 8 – April 26, 2006)
Take Two. Worlds and Views, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Acting Out: The Invented Melodrama in Contemporary Photography, organized
by UIMA curator Kathleen A. Edwards, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA; traveling to the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, NY (September 4 - December 31, 2005) (catalogue)
Translation, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
2004
African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back, Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
Yinka Shonibare, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, New York, NY
Continental Drift: Installations by Joan Jonas, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Juan Muños and Yinka Shonibare, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL
Fashination, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent, curated by Simon Njami,
Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany; traveling in 2005 to the
Hayward Gallery in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the
Mori Art Museum in Tokyo
Between The Lines, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY
Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Yerba Buena
Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2003
Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora, curated by Laurie Ann Farrell, Museum of African Art, Long Island City, Queens, New York; traveling to the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (March 27 – June 20, 2004); the Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI (September 12 – November 28, 2004); and the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal (January - March 2005) (catalogue)
Love over Gold, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland
Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
Supernova: Art of the 1990s from the Logan Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
2003
(doublures), vêtements de l'art contemporain, Musée National des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec, Canada
Independence, South London Gallery, London, UK
The African Exile Museum, Migros Museum, Zürich, Switzerland
Somewhere better that this Place, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
2002
Extension, Magasin 3, Stockholm Konsthalle, Sweden
Attitude 2002, Contemporary Arts museum, Kumamoto, Japan
Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany
Spoleto Festival, Charleston, USA
2001
Authentic / Ex-centric: Conceptualism in Contemporary African Art, 49th Venice Biennale, Fondazione Levi, Venice, Italy
Unpacking Europe, Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Toured.
The Short Century, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany. Toured.
Art through the Eye of the Needle, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway
Give and Take, Serpentine Gallery and Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
Secret Victorians, Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, PA
Vantage Point, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Sense of Wonder, Herzliya Museum of Art, Israel
2000
Age of Influence: Reflections in the Mirror of American Culture, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
Partage d'exotismes, 5th Biennale of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France
Other Modernities, Camberwell College of Arts, London, UK
Laboratory.Continental Shift, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Intelligence: New British Art 2000, Tate Britain, London, UK
South Meets West, Accra, Ghana and Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland
1999
From where – To here, Art from London, Konsthallen Göteborg, Sweden
Kunstwelten im Dialog, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Missing Link, Museum of Arts, Bern, Switzerland
Heaven, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany. Traveled to Tate Gallery Liverpool, UK
Mirror's Edge, BildMuseet, Umeå, Sweden. Traveled to Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada; Castello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy; Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland; Charlottenborg, Kopenhagen, Denmark (through 2001)
Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize, Photographers' Gallery, London, UK
In the Midst of Things, Bournville Village, Birmingham, UK
Secret Victorians, Arts Council Touring Exhibition, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK; Firstsite, Colchester; Arnolfini, Bristol, UK; Middlesborough Art Gallery, UK; Museum and Art Gallery, Brighton, UK; Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA
1998
Cinco Continentes y una Ciudad, Museo de la Ciudad de México, Mexico
Personal Effects; Sculpture & Belongings, Spacex Gallery, Exeter, UK. Toured to Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, UK
Ethno-antics, Nordic Museum, Stockholm, Sweden
Crossings, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
Liberating Tradition, Bard Center for Curatorial Studies, New York, USA
Transatlantico, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Canary Islands, Spain
Beyond Mere Likeness: Portraits from Africa and the African Diaspora, Duke
University Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina, USA
Global Vision; New Art from the 90s, Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece
1997
Sensation: Young British Art from the Saatchi Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK. Toured to National Gallery of Berlin, Germany and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA
Portable Personal Histories Museum, Ikon gallery, Birmingham, UK
Trade Routes: History and Geography, 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa
Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966-1996, Caribbean Cultural Center/African Diaspora Institute, New York, USA. Toured to Studio Museum, Harlem, New York, USA; the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA
Pictura Britannica, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia. Toured to the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide and the City gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
What, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, UK
1996
Pledge Allegiance to A Flag?, London Printworks Trust, UK
Imagined Communities, National Touring Exhibition (organised by the Hayward Gallery, London): Oldham Art Gallery; John Hansard Gallery, University of
Southampton; Colchester Minories; Royal Festival Hall, London and Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art
Discreet Charm, Visionfest, Croxteth Hall, Liverpool, UK
Inklusion:Exclusion, Steirischer Herbst, Graz, Austria
Jurassic Technology, 10th Biennale of Sydney, Australia
Painting, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
Out of Order, Independent Art School, London and Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK
1995
The Art of African Textiles: Technology, Tradition and Lurex, Barbican Centre, London, UK
Seeing and Believing, The Economist Building, London, UK
Original, Gas Works, London, UK
1994
2 out of 4 dimensions, Centre 181 Gallery, London, UK
Where are they now...?, Byam Shaw Gallery, London, UK
Seen/unseen, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, UK
TENQ, Group exhibition in Senegal, West Africa
1993
Space Studio Open Exhibition, London, UK
1992
Barclays Young Artists Award, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
1991
Interrogating Identity, Grey Art Gallery, New York, USA. Toured to Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Walker Arts Centre, Minneapolis; Madison Art Centre, Wisconsin; Memorial Art Museum, Ohio, USA
Goldsmiths College, London, UK
1989
Black Art New Directions, Stoke-on-Trent City Museum and Art Gallery, UK
Byam Shaw Final year show, London, UK
1988
Byam Shaw Concourse Gallery, London, UK
PUBLICATIONS
‘Artwriting, Nation, and Cosmopolitanism in Britain: The ‘Englishness’ of English Art Thory since the Eighteenth Century’, edited by Mark A. Cheetham, published byAshgate, Surrey, England, 2012
‘Pattern ID,’ by Ellen Rudolph, published by the Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH, 2010
‘Yinka Shonibare, MBE,’ by Rachel Kent and Robert Hobbs, published by Prestel and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia, 2008.
‘Yinka Shonibare, MBE, Odile and Odette,’ published by ACA Gallery of SCAD, Atlanta, GA, 2008
‘Yinka Shonibare, MBE, Jardin d’amour’, published by Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France, 2007
‘Fashion Accidentally,’ edited by Hsiangling Lai and Iris Huang, published by Contemporary Art Foundation / Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, 2007.
‘Around the World in Eighty Days,’ edited by Claire Fitzsimmons, Kit Hammonds, Margot Heller and Jens Hoffman, published by Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and South London Gallery, 2006.
Ahistoric Occasion: Artists Making History, edited by Nato Thompson, published by Massachusets Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Massachusets, 2005
'Acting Out: The Invented Melodrama in Contemporary Photography', essay by Kathleen Edwards, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 2005
'Looking Both Ways - Art of the African Diaspora', edited by Laurie Ann Farrell, published by the Museum for African Art, Long Island City, Queens, New York, 2003
'Double Dress', The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel, 2002
'Yinka Shonibare', The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, 2002
'Unpacking Europe', Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2001
'Yinka Shonibare. Be-Muse', Museo Hendrik Christian Andersen, Rome, 2001
'Tricking the Mind: the work of Yinka Shonibare', by Okwui Enwezor in 'Authentic/Eccentric – Conceptualism in African Art', 49th Venice Biennale, 2001
'Yinka Shonibare', The Andy Warhol Museum, 2001
'Vantage Point', Irish Museum, Dublin, 2001
'Bo01 City of Tomorrow', European Housing Expo, Malmo, Sweden, 2001
'The Short Century', Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, 2001
'Camouflage', Centre of Contemporary Art of Southern Africa, Johannesburg, 2001
'Give and Take', Serpentine Gallery, London, 2001
'What is Print?', by O. A. Bamgboyé, in 'Technology and Culture'; Witte de With Center For Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands
'Intelligence', Tate Britain, London, 2000
'South Meets West', Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland, 2000
'Other Modernities', The London Institute, 2000
'Mirror's Edge', Bildmuseet, Umea, Sweden, 1999
'Dressing Down', Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 1999
'Heaven', Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, 1999
'Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize', London, 1999
'Personal Effects: Sculpture & Belongings', Spacex Gallery, Exeter, 1998
'Secret Victorians', Arts Council touring exhibition, 1998
'Crossings', National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1998
'Trade Routes: History and Geography', 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, 1997
'Present Tense', Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1997
'Sensation', Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1997
'What', Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, 1997
'Annotations 1', Institute of International Visual Arts, London, 1996
'Pledge Allegiance to A Flag?', London Printworks Trust, 1996
'Imagined Communities', National Touring Exhibition, The South Bank Centre, London, 1995
'Inklusion: Exklusion', Steirischer Herbst, Graz, Austria, 1996
'Jurassic Technology', Tenth Biennale of Sydney, Australia, 1996
'Out of Order', Independent Art Space, London, 1996
'The Art of African Textiles: Technology, Tradition and Lurex', Barbican Centre, London, 1995
'Seen/unseen', Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, 1994
Barclays Young Artists Award, Serpentine Gallery, London, 1992
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
The Royal Academy of Arts Charles Wollaston Award, 2010
Fourth Plinth Award Nominee, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, London, 2008
Honorary Doctorate Degree, Huron University, 2007
Member of the Order of the British Empire, 2005
IASPIS, International Artists' Studio Program in Stockholm, Sweden, 2004
Fellow of Goldsmiths College, London, UK, 2003
Residency Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, USA, 2001
Residency MCA DePaul University, Chicago, USA, April 2000
Shortlisted Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize 1999
Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Visual Artists, 1998
Royal Society of Arts, Art for Architecture Award 1998
Barclays Young Artists Award, Serpentine Gallery, 1992
London Arts Board Artist's Grant, 1992
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Speed Art Museum, Louisville
RISD Museum, Providence
Tate Collection, London
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Magasin 3, Stockholm
National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, Rome
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC
Arts Council Collection, London
Walker Arts Centre, Minneapolis
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC