For full biography, download PDF
1962
Born London, England
Lives and works in London
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008
Odile and Odette, ACA Gallery of SCAD, Atlanta, GA
Yinka Shonibare, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia (September 2008)
Yinka Shonibare, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY (March 2008)
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 (through May 7, 2006)
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 (January 25- June 1, 2003); and Padiglione d'arte contemporanea, Milan, Italy (June 26-September 14, 2003) (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
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
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
Fellow of Goldsmiths College, London, UK, 2003
Residency Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, USA, 2001
Residency MCA DePaul University, Chicago, USA, April 2000
Shortlisted Citybank 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