Artist of the day: September 2024

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Artist of the Day, September 18, 2024: Yinka Shonibare a British sculptor (#2114)

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA (1962), is a British artist living in the United Kingdom. His work explores cultural identity, colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalization. A hallmark of his art is the brightly coloured Ankara fabric he uses. As Shonibare is paralyzed on one side of his body, he uses assistants to make works under his direction.

Yinka Shonibare was born in London, England. When he was three years old, his family moved to Lagos, Nigeria, where his father practiced law. When he was 17 years old, Shonibare returned to the UK to take his A-levels at Redrice School. At the age of 18, he contracted transverse myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord, which resulted in a long-term physical disability where one side of his body is paralysed..

His interdisciplinary practice uses citations of Western art history and literature to question the validity of contemporary cultural and national identities within the context of globalisation. Through examining race, class and the construction of cultural identity, his works comment on the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe, and their respective economic and political histories.

In 2004, he was nominated for the Turner Prize and in 2008, his mid-career survey began at Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, traveling in 2009 to the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. In 2010, his first public art commission ‘Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle’ was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London 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. His installation ‘The British Library’ was acquired by Tate in 2019 and is currently on display at Tate Modern, London.

Shonibare was awarded the prestigious Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon Award in 2021. A major retrospective of his work opened at the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg in the same year followed by his co-ordination of The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London which opened in September 2021.

The survey solo exhibition, Yinka Shonibare CBE: Planets in My Head, opened in April 2022 at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan followed by the unveiling in June 2022 of a major new sculptural work, Wind Sculpture in Bronze I at Royal Djurgården, Stockholm.

To mark Sharjah Biennial's 30th anniversary in February 2023, Shonibare was commissioned to create a series of new works for the exhibition. He also unveiled a new outdoor sculpture commissioned by the David Oluwale Memorial Association in Aire Park, Leeds as part of Leeds 2023.

In 2024, the Serpentine, London UK, presented a solo exhibition of works in their Serpentine South gallery titled Suspended States. Shonibare's work is also featured at the Venice Biennale 2024 as part of the Nigerian Pavilion, in the group show: Nigeria Imaginary.

Shonibare is now disabled, physically incapable of making works himself, and relies upon a team of assistants, operating himself as a conceptual artist.

Shonibare's disability has increased with age, resulting in him using an electric wheelchair. In later life, Shonibare has discussed his disability and its role within his work as a creative artist.[46] In 2013, Shonibare was announced as patron of the annual Shape Arts "Open" exhibition where disabled and non-disabled artists are invited to submit work in response to an Open theme.

© 2024. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Yinka Shonibare or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Yinka Shonibare

How Does a Girl Like You Get to Be a Girl Like You? 1995

Dysfunctional Family, 1999

Untitled (Dollhouse) from the Peter Norton Family Christmas Project, 2002

Nelson's Ship in a Bottle, 2010

African Roots of Modernism (Bété Mask), 2023

African Roots of Modernism (Gba gba), 2013

Champagne Kid (Sitting), 2013

Wind Sculpture, 2014

Ballet God (Poseidon), 2015

Boy Sitting Beside Hibiscus Flower, 2015

Wind Sculpture V, 2015 Maquette

Clementia, 2018

Woman Shooting Cherry Blossoms, 2018

Bronze, 2019

Butterfly Kid (Boy) IV, 2019

Diadumenos, 2019

Planets in my Head, Music (French Horn), 2019

Hybrid Mask (Banda), 2020-21

Hybrid Mask (Fang Ngil), 2020-21

Hybrid Mask (K'peliye'e), 2020-21

Food Man, 2021

Hybrid Mask II (K’peliye’e), 2021

Fabric Bronze (Red, Yellow, Blue), 2022

Hybrid Mask (Senufo), 2022

Hybrid Sculpture (Athena Mattei Bété Mask), 2022

Decolonised Structures, 2022-23

Hibiscus Rising sculpture from above. 2023

Monument to the Restitution of the Mind and Soul, 2024

Suspended States, 2024. Installation view

Suspended States, 2024

Suspended States, 2024 detail

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Artist of the Day, September 17, 2024: Sarah Boris, a British graphic designer, art director (#2113)

Sarah Boris is an artist and designer, with recent public art commissions which saw her create heart shaped benches which you can see here to her pop vibrant artworks which you can see here, she is keen to create more artworks in the public space and is open to commissions and artist residencies. She is currently developing modular artworks which have been exhibited in several solo shows in 2024.

She published several books such as 'Le Théâtre Graphique' her first wordless artist book now part of several museum collections. In 2023, her second wordless book 'Rainbow' was published by Corners in Seoul, Korea. Recent solo shows include 'After the Rain' at Sugery Gallery, London; Hatch Galerie, Le Havre and L'Échappée Belle in Sète, France.

Her works are part of the collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; MAK Vienna, the New York Book Art Center Fine Art Collection, FRAC Normandie-Rouen (regional contemporary art collections), l'artothèque of Le Bel Ordinaire, and was exhibited at the Design Museum in London and at Une Saison Graphique, Le Havre, France.

After working for over ten years for world renown arts and publishing institutions such as Phaidon, ICA, the Barbican, she set up her art and design studio in 2015, with a focus on public art commissions and creating new artworks in the form of screen printed editions, sculpture, paintings, letterpress, books and more. Alongside this she has also been creating visual identities, editorial design and exhibition graphics. Notable projects include her Fragile UK flag artworks, her self published book 'Global Warming Anyone?' as well as the redesign of the Institute of Contemporary Arts' (London) identity and the bestselling monograph 'JR: Can Art Change the World?' published by Phaidon.

She is a regular speaker at festivals around the world and in universities and was a guest lecturer at LCC, University of the Arts London, London Metropolitan University and University Hertfordshire. She was judge president for D&AD Professional Awards and has been a judge for D&AD New Blood, Design Week Awards, Latin American Design Awards to name a few.Please get in touch if you have any questions.

© 2024. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Sarah Boris or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only