Brand New Gallery is proud to introduce the first solo exhibition in an Italian gallery of the British-born Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare MBE, opening on the 26th of March and running through May 10th. In this multi-part exhibition of sculptures, photography, and film, Shonibare explores the concept of destiny as it relates to themes of desire, yearning, love, power, and sexual repression.

Over the past decade, Yinka Shonibare MBE has become well known for his exploration of colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalization. Working in painting, sculpture, photography and film Shonibare’s work examines race, class, and the construction of cultural identity through sharp political commentary on the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe and their respective economic and political histories. Having described himself as a postcolonial hybrid, Shonibare uses wry citations of Western art history and literature to question the validity of contemporary cultural and national identities.

Following the installation of the artist’s widely acclaimed work “Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle” in Trafalgar Square in London, Shonibare continues his explorations of Lord Nelson, the figurehead of the British Empire at its apotheosis. During the exhibition, the gallery will feature two sculptural installations of costumes with period details and his signature vibrantly patterned fabrics, a hallmark of his work, as well as a series of five photoworks entitled “Fake Death Pictures”. On view is the film “Addio Del Passato” (So Closes My Sad Story) in which the character of Lord Nelson’s estranged wife, sings the eponymous aria from the last act of Verdi’s opera, “La Traviata”.

 

Yinka Shonibare MBE was born in 1962 in London. He moved to Lagos, Nigeria at the age of three, but returned to London to study Fine Art first at the Byam Shaw College of Art (now Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design) and then at Goldsmiths College where he received MFA, graduating as part of the “Young British Artists” generation. He gained notoriety on the international stage via his commission for Documenta 10 in 2002 and was a Turner Prize nominee in 2004. In 2005 he was awarded the decoration of Member of the “Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” a title that he officially added on his professional name. His works were featured in the 52nd Biennale di Venezia (2007) and a major mid-career survey toured in 2008-9 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; and the Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC. In 2013, a major survey show was mounted at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, Yorkshire, and travelled in part to Royal Museums Greenwich/The Queen’s House, London, to Copenhagen’s GL Strand and to Poland’s Wroclaw Contemporary Museum. In 2013 the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts elected Yinka Shonibare MBE as a new member.

 

Shonibare’s work is included in several prestigious permanent collections, to name a few: Tate Collection, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Modern Museet, Stockholm; Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis; Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco.

Yinka Shonibare MBE currently lives and works in the East End of London.