Yinka Shonibare
Artist
Biography
Yinka Shonibare CBE (born 1962 in London) is a British-Nigerian artist who grew up in Lagos and returned to London to study at the Byam Shaw School of Art and Goldsmiths College. Working across painting, sculpture, photography, film, installation and textile, he explores colonialism, postcolonialism and cultural identity, most famously through his use of brightly patterned Dutch wax fabric – a material whose history links Indonesia, the Netherlands and West Africa. He was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2004, and his Nelson's Ship in a Bottle was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2010. He was elected a Royal Academician in 2013 and appointed CBE in 2019.