Yinka Shonibare CBE RA is a British-Nigerian contemporary artist known for his sculptural installations that explore issues of Post-colonialism. Utilising Dutch wax-printed fabrics in his work, Shonibare produces dresses, grounds for paintings, and elaborate sculptures. For the artist, the material signifies issues of commerce, race, and politics, as it was produced by Europeans to be sold in Indonesia as a native style and subsequently became popular in West African countries.
Born in London, United Kingdom, Shonibare grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, but returned to England throughout his childhood. At 17, Shonibare fell ill with transverse myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord that left him paralysed in half his body. Despite this disability, the artist attended Byam Shaw College of Art and later received his MFA from Goldsmiths in 1991. In 2004 he was nominated for the Turner Prize. In 2010 his first public art commission ‘Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle’ was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square and is in the permanent collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. In 2013 he was elected a Royal Academician and was awarded the honour of Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2019.
