Yinka Shonibare MBE Enter a
feeling, not
a gallery.
Choose a mood and the room itself answers — the light cools or warms, the air changes pace, and only the works that carry that feeling step forward from the dark. Everything else recedes into shadow.
Yinka Shonibare MBE
A Life Interwoven: The Art of Yinka Shonibare MBE Yinka Shonibare’s artistic journey is one profoundly shaped by displacement, identity, and a keen interrogation of history. Born in London in 1962 to Nigerian parents, his early life was marked by a geographical and cultural shift when the family relocated to Lagos at the age of three. This formative period instilled within him an awareness of belonging – and not belonging – that would
become central to his artistic explorations. Returning to Britain for his education, attending Redrice School before pursuing Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art (now Central Saint Martins) and Goldsmiths, University of London, Shonibare began to articulate a visual language rooted in this complex interplay of cultures. A pivotal moment arrived at eighteen when he contracted transverse myelitis, resulting in paralysis on one side of hi…