Writing Art History Since 2002

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One of the most prominent and versatile artists working in Great Britain today, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA (London, GB, 1962) makes work that scrutinizes the legacy of Western colonialism and its lingering traces.

The British-Nigerian artist rose to renown with installations featuring headless lifesized figures in historic costumes tailored out of colourful batik-dyed fabrics. A self-described “postcolonial hybrid,” Shonibare zooms in on episodes from art and history, primarily from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, employing subversive creative strategies to visualize them in tragicomic scenes of human activity.

Shonibare’s multimedia oeuvre probes constructions of race, class, and national and cultural identities through a sustained study of the historic interdependencies between Africa and Europe. The major solo exhibition gathers some sixty works from the past thirty years.

The exhibitions are curated by Thorsten Sadowsky and Marijana Schneider. It will be on view at Museum de Moderne Salzburg from the 22nd of May until the 12th of September 2021. The exhibition is supported by the British Council.

An extensive publication (DE/EN) was published in conjunction with the exhibition. You can order it HERE online.

FEATURED IMAGE: Installation view of ‘Yinka Shonibare CBE. End of Empire’ at Museum der Moderne Salzburg, 2021. Photographer: Rainer Iglar © Museum der Moderne Salzburg

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