Yinka Shonibare CBE RA
(Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Fellow of Goldsmiths College, Royal Academician, The Royal Academy and Fellow of the University of the Arts, London)
Born: London, England, 1962
Lives and works in London, England
Education
1989-1991
Goldsmiths College, London, England
1984-1989
Byam Shaw School of Art, London, England
Public Works and Commissions
2023
Hibiscus Rising, Aire Park, Leeds, England, commissioned by David Oluwale Memorial Association as part of Leeds 2023 (permanent)
Material (SG) IV, Frieze Sculpture, London, England
2022
The World Reimagined, Globe Trail, London, England
Liberty Festival, Lewisham, London, England
Wind Sculpture III, Dubai Expo 2020, Al Forsan Park, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (permanent)
Wind Sculpture in Bronze I, Royal Djurgården, Stockholm, Sweden (permanent)
sketch restaurant, London, England, site-specific commission with India Mahdavi
2021
Hepworth Wakefield School Prints Campaign, Wakefield District Schools, England
Wind Sculpture (SG) V, Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Material (SG) II, 360 Rosemary, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA (permanent)
Wind Sculpture III, Expo 2020, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2020
Wind Sculpture (SG) V, The Greenway Public Park, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Hibiscus and the Rose, Robson Orr TenTen commission, Outset and Government Art Collection, England
Wind Sculpture (SG) IV, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
2019
Material (SG) I, Whitman Walker Health Centre Commission, Washington DC, USA
2018
Wind Sculpture (SG) I, Public Art Fund Commission, Doris C. Freedman Plaza, Central Park, New York; permanent installation: Davidson College, North Carolina, USA
2017
Wind Sculpture VI, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy Burlington Gardens, London, England
2016
Wind Sculpture VII, Smithsonian Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA (permanent)
Wind Sculpture VI, British Council UK/Nigeria 2015–16, Ndubuisi Kanu Park, Lagos, Nigeria
2014
Wind Sculpture, Howick Place, Victoria, London, England (permanent)
Wind Sculpture V, Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Los Angeles, USA
MCA Chicago Plaza Project, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois, USA
2012
Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, Acquisition National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, England (permanent)
Globe Head Ballerina, Royal Opera House, London, England
2010
Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, Fourth Plinth Commission, Trafalgar Square, London, England
2007
White Flag at Half Mast, commission for the Jubilee Flagpole, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London, England
2005
Collaborative film/dance project with the Royal Opera House and the Africa Centre, London, England
1998
Diary of a Victorian Dandy, site-specific project on the London Underground, commissioned and produced by INIVA, London, England
Solo Exhibitions (selected)
2024
Suspended States, Serpentine, London, England (catalogue)
2023
Boomerang: Returning to African Abstraction, James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA
Free The Wind, The Spirit, and The Sun, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Ritual Ecstasy of The Modern, Cristea Roberts, London, England
2022
Planets in My Head, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
2021
African Spirits of Modernism, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
End of Empire, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria (catalogue)
2020
The Bird Catcher’s Dilemma, Museum of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
Radical Hybridity, M WOODS Art Community, Beijing, China
Justice for All, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Justice for All, The Arts House, Singapore
2019
Cowboy Angels, The British Museum, London, England
The American Library, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
The British Library, Tate Modern, London, England (permanent acquisition)
Flower Power, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (catalogue)
Creatures of the Mappa Mundi, Hereford Cathedral, Hereford, England (commissioned by Meadow Arts)
Trade Winds, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
A Tale of Today, Richard H. Driehaus Museum, Chicago, Illinois, USA (catalogue)
Guns Drawn, Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA
2018
The American Library, Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College, North Carolina, USA
Fitzrovia Chapel, London, England
End of Empire, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, Wales
Ruins Decorated, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Busan Museum of Art, South Korea
Howick Place, London, England
2017
Prejudice at Home: A Parlour, A Library, and A Room, James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA
2016
…and the wall fell away, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Recreating the Pastoral, VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, Ireland
End of Empire, Turner Contemporary, Margate, England
Childhood Memories, Pearl Lam Galleries, Singapore
Rotunda Projects, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Paradise Beyond, Gemeentemuseum Helmond, Netherlands
British Council UK/Nigeria 2015–16, Lagos, Nigeria
Wind Sculpture IV, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA
RA Family Album, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
2015
Pièces de Résistance, DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montréal, Canada
Rage of the Ballet Gods, James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA
Colonial Arrangements, Morris Jumel Mansion, New York, USA
Wilderness into a Garden, Daegu Museum, Daegu, South Korea (catalogue)
The William Morris Family Album, William Morris Gallery, London, England
2014
Cannonball Paradise, Herbert Gerisch Foundation, Neumünster, Germany
The British Library, HOUSE and Brighton Festival co-commission, The Old Reference Library, Brighton Museum, England
Magic Ladders, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (catalogue)
Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy
Making Eden, Blain|Southern, Berlin, Germany
Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw, Poland
MCA Chicago Plaza Project, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois, USA
Egg Fight, Fondation Blachère, Apt, France
Party Time: Re-imagine America, The Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey, USA
Selected Works, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw, Poland (touring)
2013
Selected Works, Gdansk City Gallery, Gdansk, Poland (touring)
Dreaming Rich, Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong
Royal Museums Greenwich, London, England
FABRIC-ATION, GL Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, England (touring)
FOCUS: Yinka Shonibare, MBE, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, USA
POP!, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
2012
Imagined as the Truth, San Diego Art Museum, San Diego, California, USA
Invasion, Escape: Aliens do it right!, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Addio del Passato, James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA
2011
El Futuro del Pasado, Alcalá 31 Centros de Arte, Madrid, Spain; Centro de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain (touring, catalogue)
2010
Human Culture: Earth, Wind, Fire and Water, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Sculpture, Photography and Film, Western Michigan University, Michigan, USA
Looking Up, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco
Friedrichswerder Church, Berlin, Germany
Before and After Modernism: Byam Shaw, Rex Vicat Cole, Yinka Shonibare, MBE, Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London, England
2009
Mother and Father Worked Hard So I Can Play, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York; St Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA (touring)
Willy Loman: The Rise and Fall, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Party Time: Re-Imagine America - A Centennial Commission by Yinka Shonibare MBE, Newark Museum, Newark-on-Trent, England
Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Dublin, Ireland
A Flying Machine for every Man, Woman and Child & other Astonishing Works, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, USA
A Flying Machine for every Man, Woman and Child, Miami Art Museum, Miami, Florida, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Sydney, Australia; Brooklyn Museum, New York and National Museum of African Art Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA (touring)
2008
Odile and Odette, Savannah College of Art and Design, ACA Gallery, Atlanta, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Sydney, Australia; Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Smithsonian, Washington DC, USA (touring)
Prospero’s Monsters, James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA
2007
Scratch the Surface, National Gallery, London, England
Jardin d’Amour, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France
Summer Show, New York Gallery, New York, USA
2006
Speed Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Flower Time, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
2005
Mobility, James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA
2004
Turner Prize, Tate Britain, London
Double Dutch, Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Kunsthalle Vienna, Austria (touring) (catalogue)
Vasa, commission for the opening of Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Yinka Shonibare, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
2003
Play with me, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Double Dress, KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; and Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy (touring, catalogue)
2002
Double Dress, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel and Studio Museum, Harlem, New York, USA (touring, catalogue)
Christmas Tree Project, Tate Britain, London, England
Britannia project, Tate Britain, London, England
Be-muse, The British School in Rome, Rome, Italy (catalogue)
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA (brochure)
Camouflage, Johannesburg, South Africa (catalogue)
2001
Stephen Friedman Gallery and 2nd Floor, 12 Dolland Street, London, England
2000
Effective, defective, creative, permanent video installation, Wellcome Wing, Science Museum, London, England
Camden Arts Centre, London, England
Affectionate Men, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England
Diary of a Victorian Dandy Project, INIVA; Castle Museum, Nottingham; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle; Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, England (touring)
1999
Dressing Down, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England; Henie Onstad Art Centre, Norway (touring)
Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland; Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield; Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales (catalogue)
Brent Sikkema, New York, USA
1998
Alien Obsessives, Mum, Dad and the Kids, Tablet, the Tabernacle, London; Norwich Art Gallery, Norwich, England (touring)
1997
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Present Tense, contemporary project series, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
1995
Sun, Sea and Sand, BAC Gallery, London, England
1994
Double Dutch, Centre 181 Gallery, London, England
1989
Byam Shaw Gallery, London, England
Bedford Hill Gallery, London, England
Curated Exhibitions
2021
Reclaiming Magic, Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
2018
Criminal Ornamentation, Arts Council Collection, Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester; Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter; Longside Gallery, Wakefield; Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton, England (touring)
Talisman in the Age of Difference, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
2005
Yinka Shonibare Selects: Works from the Permanent Collection, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, New York, USA
Group Exhibitions (selected)
2024
Nigeria Imaginary, Nigerian Pavilion, 60th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Italy
Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, 60th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Italy
Food in Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (MOCAK), Poland
A Matter of Time, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland
Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, Barbican, London, England
Entangled Pasts, 1768-now: Art, Colonialism and Change, Royal Academy, London, England
2023
In Brilliant Light, Wereldmuseum Leiden, Leiden, Netherlands
NGV Triennial, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (catalogue)
The Place I Am, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Performing History. Postcolonial Memory and Identity in Contemporary Art, Schleswig Holstein State Museums Foundation Schloss Gottorf, Germany
At the end of my dreams, Vanhaerents Art Collection, Le Tripostal, Lille, France
Reimag(in)ing the Victorians, Djanogly Gallery, Lakeside Arts, University of Nottingham, England
PLASTIC: Textile as an artistic material, Kunsthalle Emden, Emden, Germany (touring)
Threads: Breathing stories into materials, Arnolfini, Bristol, England
Birdsong, Timothy Taylor, London, England
The Magic of the Silver Swan, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, England
Lagos, Peckham, Repeat: Pilgrimage to the Lakes, South London Gallery, London, England
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
Tales for a Stranger, Maruani & Mercier, Zaventem, Belgium
Threads: Breathing stories into materials, Arnolfini, Bristol, England
To Be Free: Art and Liberty, Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury, England
Gemma De Angelis Testa Donation, Ca’ Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice, Italy
Trace - Formations of Likeness. Photography and Video from The Walther Collection, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
The Art of Fabric: Textile as Artistic Material, Kunsthalle Vogelmann, Heilbronn, Germany (catalogue)
Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present, Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates
TAGUKORE: Dunno A Thing About Art (But I Like It), Taguchi Art Collection, Kadokawa Culture Museum, Saitama, Japan
2022
The Fest: Between Representation and Revolt, Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria
Constellations: Global Reflections, Kura Kura, Bali, Indonesia
Hibiscus Rising: Creating a Memorial for David Oluwale with Yinka Shonibare CBE, The Tetley, Leeds, England
Earth: Digging Deep in British Art 1781-2022 RWA, Bristol, England
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
The Double: Identity and Difference in Art Since 1990’, National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA
The Future is Blinking: Early Studio Photography from West and Central Africa, Museum Rietberg Zurich, Switzerland
Pablo Picasso: The Legacy of Youth, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England
Earth: Digging Deep in British Art 1715–2022’, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, England
And I Must Scream, Michael C Carlos Museum of Emory University, Druid Hills, Georgia, USA
Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear, Sainsbury Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England
Dig Where You Stand – Group Show, Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, Tamale, Ghana
A Gateway to Possible Worlds: Art & Science Fiction, Centre Pompidou-Metz, France
Crazy, Chiostro del Bramante, Rome, Italy
Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA
Responsibility to Reveal: 30 Years of the Knight Purchase Award for Photographic Media, Akron Art Musuem, Akron, Ohio, USA
2021
Disrupting the Canon, The Arts Club, London, England
The Worlds We Make: Selections from the ICA Collection, Kim and Jim Pallotta Gallery, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Reclaiming Magic, Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
London Calling, Bancaja Foundation, Valencia, Spain
Stephen Friedman Gallery at The London House of Modernity, London, England (collaboration with Modernity, Stockholm, Sweden)
Ikon in the 1990s, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England
Re-création, Fondation Blachère, Apt, France
Diversity/ United: Contemporary Art of Europe, Moscow, Berlin, Paris, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; Flughafen Tempelhof, Berlin, Germany; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (touring, catalogue)
Garmenting: Costume and Contemporary Art, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA
Hidden in Plain Sight, Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt, Germany
Carnival, Polygon Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
UnNatural History, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, England
When Home Won’t Let You Stay, Iris and Gerald B. Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA (touring, catalogue)
2020
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
25 Years, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England (catalogue)
Five Rooms from the Harry David Collection, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
Radical Revisionists: Contemporary African Artists Confronting Past and Present, Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Texas, USA
Inspiration – Iconic Works, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden, Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki as ‘Inspiration – Contemporary Art & The Classics’ (touring, catalogue)
When Home Won’t Let You Stay, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA (touring, catalogue)
2019
When Home Won’t Let You Stay, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Massachusetts, USA (touring, catalogue)
Counter Acts, University of the Arts, London, England
Bel Canto: Contemporary Artist Explore Opera, SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Utopian Imagination, Ford Foundation Gallery Center for Social Justice, New York, USA
Being Human, Wellcome Collection, London, England
Get Up, Stand Up Now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers, Somerset House, London, England
A Cool Breeze, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic
Magdalene Odundo: The Journey of Things, The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, England; Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England (touring)
2018
Senses of Time: Video and Film-Based Works of Africa, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA
Front International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Like Life: Sculpture, Colour and the Body, The Met Breuer, New York, USA
The Great Spectacle, Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy of Art, London, England
An American City: Eleven Cultural Exercises, Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, Ohio, USA
The Most Real Thing, New Art Centre, Salisbury, England
Powerful Tides, The Dockyard, Chatham, England
2017
Colonial Stories, GL Holtegaard, Holte, Denmark
From Life, The Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
Enlightened Princesses; Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte and the Shaping of the Modern World, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, USA; Kensington Palace, London, England (touring)
Quotidian, Pearl Lam Galleries, Shanghai, China
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, England
Un bal masqué (A masked ball), Le Chateau de Nyon, Switzerland
Diaspora Pavilion, International Curators Forum Mentoring Programme, Venice Biennale, Italy
Tous, des sang-mêlés, MAC/VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine, France
Public View, Bluecoat, Liverpool, England
2016
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, England
Making and Unmaking, Camden Arts Centre, London, England
Found, Foundling Museum, London, England
BODY/PLAY/POLITICS, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan
Animalia, Marian Goodman Gallery, London, England
Senses of Time: Video and Film-Based Works of Africa, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA
Across Art and Fashion, Ferragamo Museum, Florence, Italy
New Past: Contemporary Art from Britain, Art Gallery of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
2015
Portraits and Other Likenesses from SFMOMA, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, USA
The Worlds Turned Upside Down, BPS22, Musée d’art de la Province de Hainaut, Charleroi, Belgium
A Brief History of the Future, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels
Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
Arts + Foods. Rituals since 1851, Fondazione La Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy
Self: Image and Identity, Turner Contemporary, Kent, Engalnd
Chercher le Garçon, MAC/VAL, Paris, France
In Search of Meaning, Museum de Fundatie, Netherlands
Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
Making Africa: A continent of Contemporary Design, Vitra Design Museum, Weil Am Rhein, Germany
Unravelling Identity: Our Textiles, Our Stories, Textile Museum, The George Washington University Museum, Washington DC, USA
Heartbreak Hotel, presented by the Vanhaertens Collection, Venice Biennale, Italy
10th Anniversary Exhibition, Museu Afro Brasil, Sao Paulo, Brazil
The Inverted Worlds, BPS 22, Charleroi, Belgium
La vida es esto, DA2, Salamanca, Spain
The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory revisited by Contemporary African Artists, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, USA (touring, catalogue)
2014
The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory revisited by Contemporary African Artists, Frankfurt MMK, Frankfurt, Germany; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Correo Venezia, Venice; Hayward Gallery, London, England (touring, catalogue)
Africa Now – Political Patterns, Seoul Museum, Seoul, Korea
POST POP: EAST MEETS WEST, Saatchi Gallery, London, England
It’s All a Masquerade! - Carneval, Masquerade and other Forms of Authorised Anarchy, Kunsthalle Villa Rot, Burgrieden, Germany
The House Of The Flying Wheel, Backlit Gallery, Nottingham, England; Morley Gallery, England (touring)
Progress, The Foundling Museum, London, England
Study from the Human Body, Stephen Friedman, Gallery, London, England
Misled by Nature: Contemporary Art and the Baroque, The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada
Ship to Shore, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, England
Fabric as Material and Concept in Modern Art from Klimt to the Present, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany
The Human Factor, Hayward Gallery, London, England
Interchange Junctions, 5 Howick Place, London, England
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
Collection IX. Arco Collection, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, CA2M, Madrid, Spain
Aliens in Parliament, Kiel Parliament, Kiel Country House, Kiel, Germany
2013
Education, Vögele Kultur Zentrum, Pfäffikon, Switzerland
Block Party: Contemporary Craft Inspired by the Art of the Tailor, AUB, Bournemouth, England
Living Archive, Paco Das Artes, Sao Paulo, Brasil
Bienniale Cuvee, Offenes Kulturhaus, Linz, Austria
Out of Fashion, glHoltegaard, Holte, Denmark; Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, Aalborg, Denmark (touring)
Pivot Points: 15 Years & Counting: 15th Anniversary Collection, MOCA, North Miami, USA
Brilliant Disguise: Masks and Other Transformations, Contemporary Art Centre, Louisiana, USA
Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, Smithsonian Institute, National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA
Encounters: Photography from the Sheldon Museum of Art, Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Le Pont, Musée d'Art Contemporain, project for Marseille-Provence 2013 European Capital of Culture
Pedro Lasch, Susan Harbage Page and Yinka Shonibare, Nasher, Museum of Art at Duke University, North Carolina, USA
Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, USA
Victoriana: The Art of Revival, Guildhall Art Gallery, London, England
Kunst & Textile, Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany
Miniartextil, Villa Olmo, Como, Italy
2012
The Progress of Love, Center for Contemporary Art, Lagos, Nigeria; The Menil Collection, Texas; The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis, Missouri, USA (touring, catalogue)
The Desire for Freedom: Art in Europe since 1945, Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin, Germany
Happening to Be, Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins, London, England
The Desire for Freedom: Art in Europe since 1945, German Historical Museum, Berlin, Germany
Encounters: Conflict, Dialogue, and Discovery, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Migrations: Journeys into British Art, Tate Britain, London, England
Trade Routes Over Time, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
Déjà-vu? Die Kunst der Wiederholung von Dürer bis YouTube (Déjà-vu? The Art of Reproduction from Dürer to YouTube), Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
artbindLuxe: Mode D’Emploi, Passage de Retz, Paris, France
Rokoko Mania: Contemporary art and design in dialogue with crafts from the 1700’s, Designmuseum, København, Denmark
Cotton: Global Threads, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, England
The Crisis Commission, Somerset House, London, England
Six Yards, Guaranteed Real Dutch Wax Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, Arnhem, Netherlands
Block Party, Smiths Row, London; National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland; New Walk Museum & Gallery, Leicester, England (touring)
Fairy Tales, Monsters, and the Genetic Imagination, Frist Centre for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennesse, USA; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba, Canada; and to the Glenbow Art Museum, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (touring)
Histories of the Colonial screening event for Colonial Spectres: A moving Picture Blues, film series, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (MUMOK), Vienna, Austria (Film: Addio del Passato)
African Cosmos: Stellar Arts, Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA
2011
Travelling Light, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England
I Know Something About Love, Parasol Unit, London, England
Sympathy for the Devil, Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels, Belgium
Made in the UK: Contemporary Art from the Richard Brown Baker Collection, Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Rewind-Play-Forward, Kaunas Biennial, Kaunas, Lithuania
Environment and Object, Tang Art Museum, New York, USA
Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia, USA
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Vermont, USA
Human Nature: Contemporary Art from the Collection, LACMA, Los Angeles, California
The African Continuum, the United Nations, New York, USA
Sprit and Space: Collection Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid, Spain
African Interweave: Textile Diasporas, Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida, USA
The Way We Are Now: Selections from the 21c Collection, Cincinnati Art Museum
2010
Lust and Vice. The Seven Deadly Sins from Dürer to Nauman, Kustmuseum Bern and the Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland
GSK Contemporary – Aware: Art Fashion Identity, Royal Academy, London, England Raw, 242nd Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, England
Lust and Vice: The 7 Deadly Sins from Dürer to Nauman, Art Museum of Bern, Switzerland
Aware: Art Fashion Identity, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
21st Century: Art in the First Decade, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
The House of Fairy Tales, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, England
Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis, San Francisco, California, USA
Spanish Muse: A Contemporary Response, Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA
Eye of the Pacific Rim, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan City, Korea
Foundation of Art: Sculpture and its Base since Rodin, ARP Museum, Bonn, Germany
Who Knows Tomorrow, Friedrichswerder Church, Berlin, Germany
Until Now: Collecting the Contemporary (1960-2010), Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, USA
Size DOES Matter, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, USA
Contemplating the Void, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Pattern I.D., Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio, USA
Nothing is Forever, South London Gallery, London, England
Performance/Art, Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, Dallas, USA
DaDaFest International, Liverpool, England
2009
British Subjects: Identity and Self-Fashioning, 1965-2009, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, USA
A Rebelión dos Xeneros, Centro Torrente Ballester, Ferrol, Spain
Third Moscow Bienniale of Contemporary Art, The garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia
Persona, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium
Perhaps Truth is a Woman, Museum of European Garden History, Düsseldorf, Germany
Unbounded: New Art for a New Century, Newark Museum, New Jersey, USA
Body Memory, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Bodies in Contemporary Art, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA
Pictures in Series, Fischer Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, New York, USA
2008
Nos, Museu de republica, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles, The Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, USA
Space Now!, The Triangle Gallery at Space Studios, London, England
Angaza Afrika, The October Gallery, London, England
The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Body Space, Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle, England
2007
Crossing the Water, Cartwright Hall Gallery, Bradford; City Gallery, Leicester, England (touring)
Stardust or the last border, Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne (MAC/VAL), Vitry-sur-Seine, France
Role Exchange, Sean Kelly, New York, USA
African Art Today: An Unbounded Vista, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA
Check-List Luanda Pop, African Pavillion, 52nd Venice Biennale, Italy
Uncomfortable Truths – the shadow of slave trading on contemporary art and design, Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Salford; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, England (touring)
Tomorrow Now: When Design Meets Science Fiction, MUDAM, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
War and Discontent, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Scratch the Surface, National Portrait Gallery, London, England
Fashion Accidentally, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan
2006
Primitivism Revisited, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA
RADAR: Selections from the Collection of Vicki and Kent Logan, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, USA
Alien Nation, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England
William Hogarth, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France; Tate Britain, London, England; Caixa Forum, Madrid, Spain (touring)
Transvideo, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
MASCARADA / MASQUERADE, DA2 - Domus Artium 2002, Centro de Arte de Salamanca, Spain
DRESSCODE, Historisches und Völkerkundemuseum, St Gallen, Switzerland
Space is the Place, Independent Curators International, New York, USA
Los Usos de la Pintura II, Espacio 1414, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Pattern Language: Clothing as Communicator, University Art Museum, UC Santa Barbara, California, USA
Africa Remix, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Acting the Part: Photography as Theatre, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
Contemporary Commonwealth, The Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Ahistoric Occasion: Artists Making History, MASS MoCA, Massachusetts, USA (catalogue)
East Wing Collection No. 7 Culture Bound, Courtauld Institute, Somerset House, London, England
Around The World In Eighty Days, Institute of Contemporary Arts and South London Gallery, London, England
Photography: Recent Acquisitions, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, New York, USA
Artificial Afrika, Gigantic ArtSpace, New York, USA
2005
Linkages and Themes in the African Diaspora: Selections from the Eileen Harris Norton and Peter Norton Contemporary Art Collections, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, California, USA
Woman Women, Ville de Carouge, Geneva, Switzerland; Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy; Palais des Beaux Arts/Entrepõt Royal Tour & Taxis (touring)
Take Two. Worlds and Views, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Acting Out: The Invented Melodrama in Contemporary Photography, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa, City, Iowa, USA; Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, New York, USA (touring, catalogue)
Ten Year Anniversary Exhibition, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Africa Remix, Contemporary Art of a Continent, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany; Hayward Gallery, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (touring)
African Voices, New Museum of World Cultures, Gothenburg, Sweden
Translation, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2004
African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA
Continental Drift: Installations by Ilya Kabakov, Joan Jonas, Juan Muños, Yinka Shonibare, Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA
Fashination, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
The Fabric Workshop and Museum, New York, USA
Flexible 4: Identities, Landes Museen, Linz, Austria
Between The Lines, James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA
Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts, San Francisco, California, USA (catalogue)
2003
Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora, The Museum for African Art, New York, USA (catalogue)
Love over Gold, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland
Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, New Museum, New York, USA (catalogue)
Flexible 4: Identities, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, England
Supernova: Art of the 1990s from the Logan Collection, SF MOMA, San Francisco, California, USA
(doublures), vêtements de l'art contemporain, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec, Canada (catalogue)
Independence, South London Gallery, London, England
The African Exile Museum, Migros Museum, Zürich, Switzerland
Somewhere better than this Place, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
2002
Extension, Magasin 3, Stockholm Konsthalle, Stockholm, Sweden
Attitude 2002, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, Japan (catalogue)
Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany (catalogue)
Spoleto Festival, Charleston, West Virgina, USA
2001
Authentic/Ex-centric: Conceptualism in Contemporary African Art, 49th Venice Biennale, Fondazione Levi, Venice, Italy
Unpacking Europe, Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands (touring, catalogue)
The Short Century, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany (touring, catalogue)
Art through the Eye of the Needle, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway
Give and Take, Serpentine and Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England
Secret Victorians, Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Vantage Point, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Sense of Wonder, Herzliya Museum of Art, Israel
2000
Age of Influence: Reflections in the Mirror of American Culture, MCA Chicago, Illinois, USA
Partage d’exotismes, 5th Biennale of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France
Other Modernities, Camberwell College of Arts, London, England
Laboratory. Continental Shift-Artists from the African continent in Europe, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands
Intelligence: New British Art 2000, Tate Britain, London, England
South Meets West, Accra, Ghana and Kunsthalle, Bern, Switzerland
1999
From where–To here, Art from London, Konsthallen Göteborg, Sweden
Kunstwelten im Dialog, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Missing Link, Museum of Arts, Bern, Switzerland
Heaven, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany; Tate Gallery, Liverpool, England
Mirror’s Edge, Bild Museet, Umeå, Sweden; Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada; Castello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy; Tramway, Glasgow; Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark (touring)
Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize, Photographers’ Gallery, London, England
In the Midst of Things, Bournville Village, Birmingham, England
Secret Victorians, Arts Council Touring Exhibition, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Firstsite, Colchester; Arnolfini, Bristol, England; Middlesborough Art Gallery; Museum and Art Gallery, Brighton, England; Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA
Sensation, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA (touring)
1998
Cinco Continentes y una Ciudad, Museo de la Ciudad de México, México D.F.
Personal Effects; Sculpture & Belongings, Spacex Gallery, Exeter; Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, England (touring)
Ethno-antics, Nordic Museum, Stockholm, Sweden
Crossings, National Gallery of Canada, Ottowa, Canada
Liberating Tradition, Bard Center for Curatorial Studies, New York, USA
Transatlantico, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Canary Islands, Spain
Beyond Mere Likeness: Portraits from Africa and the African Diaspora, Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina, USA
Global Vision; New Art from the ‘90s, Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece
1997
Sensation: Young British Art from the Saatchi Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England; National Gallery of Berlin, Germany and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA (touring)
Portable Personal Histories Museum, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England
Trade Routes: History and Geography, 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa
Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966- 1996, Caribbean Cultural Center/African Diaspora Institute, New York, NY; Studio Museum, Harlem, NY; the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA
Pictura Britannica, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide and the City gallery, Wellington, New Zealand (touring)
What, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, England
1996
Pledge Allegiance to A Flag?, London Printworks Trust, London, England
Imagined Communities, National Touring Exhibition, Oldham Art Gallery; John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton; Colchester Minories; Royal Festival Hall, London, and Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland (touring)
Discreet Charm, Visionfest, Croxteth Hall, Liverpool, England
Inklusion:Exclusion, Steirischer Herbst, Graz, Austria
Jurassic Technology, 10th Biennale of Sydney, Australia
Painting, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Out of Order, Independent Art School, London, England; Cornerhouse, Manchester, England
1995
The Art of African Textiles: Technology, Tradition and Lurex, Barbican Centre, London, England
Seeing and Believing, The Economist Building, London, England
Original, Gasworks, London, England
1994
2 out of 4 dimensions, Centre 181 Gallery, London, England
Where are they now...?, Byam Shaw Gallery, London, England
Seen/unseen, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, England
TENQ, group exhibition in Senegal, West Africa
1993
Space Studios Open Exhibition, London, England
1992
Barclays Young Artists Award, Serpentine, London, England
1991
Interrogating Identity, Grey Art Gallery, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; Walker Arts Centre, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Madison Art Centre, Wisconsin; Memorial Art Museum, Ohio, USA; Goldsmiths College, London, England
1989
Black Art New Directions, Stoke-on-Trent City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on Trent, England
Byam Shaw Final year show, London, England
1988
Byam Shaw Concourse Gallery, London, England
Publications (selected)
2024
Yinka Shonibare CBE: Suspended States, Serpentine, London, England
2023
NGV Triennial, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
ART TEXTILE KUNST, Zurich, Switzerland
The Art of Fabric: Textile as Artistic Material, Kunsthalle Vogelmann, Heilbronn, Germany
Afroprophetic: Art transforming minds and nature, ed. Sophie Braine, Arete Arts Foundation
2022
Les Portes Du Possible, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2021
A Brief History of Black British Art, Rianna Jade Parker, Tate Publishing
African Artists: From 1882 to Now, ed. Phaidon Editors, Chika Okeke-Agulu and Joseph L. Underwood, Phaidon
Diversity/ United: Contemporary Art of Europe, Moscow, Berlin, Paris, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
2020
25 Years, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England (catalogue)
IncarNations: African Art as Philosophy, Bozar, Brussels, Belgium, ed. Kendell Geers
When Home Won’t Let You Stay, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Massachusetts; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Iris and Gerald B. Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
2019
Fly Me to the Moon. The Moon Landing: 50 Years on, Kunsthaus Zürich
Get Up, Stand Up Now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers, Somerset House, London, England, p. 130
Yinka Shonibare CBE, A Tale of Today, Richard H. Driehaus Museum, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Stick to the Skin, African American and Black British Art, 1965–2015, University of California Press (UC Press), Berkeley, California, USA, ed. Celeste-Marie Bernier
14–18 Now: WWI Centenary Art Commissions, Profile Books, ed. Angela Koo
Yinka Shonibare CBE: Flower Power, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
2018
Like Life: Sculpture, Colour, and the Body, Met Breuer, New York, USA
Criminal Ornamentation, Hayward Publishing, London, England
2017
From Life, Royal Academy of Arts Exhibition Catalogue, London, England
Enlightened Princesses, Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of the Modern World, Yale Center for British Art, Yale, USA , ed. Joana Maeschner
2016
BODY/PLAY/POLITICS, Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan, ed. Otani Kaoruko
2015
20 Years, essays by Stephen Friedman and Sarah Thornton, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England (catalogue)
Yinka Shonibare MBE: Wilderness into a Garden, Daegu Museum, Daegu, South Korea
2014
Yinka Shonibare MBE: Egg Fight, Fondation Blachère, Apt, France (exhibition catalogue)
Yinka Shonibare MBE, Edited by Rachel Kent, Prestel and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia (Revised and expanded edition)
Yinka Shonibare MBE: Magic Ladders, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
2013
FABRICA-TION, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire, England (includes an interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist)
2012
Artwriting, Nation and Cosmopolitanism in Britain: The ‘Englishness’ of English Art Theory since the Eighteenth Century, edited by Mark A. Cheetham, Ashgate, Surrey, England
The Progress of Love, Center for Contemporary Art, Menil Collection, Texas, USA
2011
I Know Something About Love, Yinka Shonibare (text contribution), Parasol Unit, Koenig Books, London, England
El Futuro del Pasado, Edited by Octavio Zaya and Centro de Arte Moderno, Spain
African Textile Patterns, A & C Publishers Ltd, ed. Catherine Carpenter
2010
Looking Up, Nouveau Musee National de Monaco, Monaco
Before and After Modernism, Byam Shaw, Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, London, England
KulTur i Afrika, The Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden
Pattern ID, Ellen Rudolph, Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio, USA
2008
Yinka Shonibare, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
Yinka Shonibare, MBE, Odile and Odette, published by ACA Gallery of SCAD, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Yinka Shonibare, MBE, Rachel Kent and Robert Hobbs, Prestel and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia
2007
Jardin d’amour, Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France
Fashion Accidently, edited by Hsiangling Lai and Iris Huang, Contemporary Art Foundation / Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei
2006
RADAR: Selections from the Collection of Vicki and Kent Logan, Denver Art Museum, USA
Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography, Phaidon Press
Acting the Part: Photography as Theatre, National Gallery of Canada, Merrell, London, England
Contemporary Commonwealth, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Around the World in Eighty Days, edited by Claire Fitzsimmons, Kit Hammonds, Margot Heller and Jens Hoffman, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and South London Gallery, England
Ahistoric Occasion: Artists Making History, edited by Nato Thompson, published by Massachusets Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Massachusets, USA
2005
Acting Out: The Invented Melodrama in Contemporary Photography, essay by KathleenEdwards, University of Washington Press, Seattle
Zürich Development Center, Zürich Insurance Company, Zürich, Switzerland
Shades of Black, Assembling Black Arts in 1980s Britain, Duke University Press, Durham, NC; inIVA, London, England
A Sense of Place, inIVA, London, England
Exploring Art. A Global, Thematic Approach, Thomson Wadsworth
Africa Remix, Contemporary Art of a Continent, Hayward Gallery, London, England
Samtidskonst för lävare och andra intresserade, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
The Israel Museum Jerusalem, Harry N. Abrams Inc. New York, USA
L’art de la friche, essai sur l’art africain contemporain, Flammarion, France
2004
Turner Prize, Tate, London, England
Undomesticated Interiors, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA
Fashination, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Selvedge…The Fabric of Your Life; The Architecture Issue, London, England
The Culture Game, University of Minnesota Press, Minnesota, USA
Continental Drift, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA
Double Dutch, Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands and Kunsthalle Vienna, Austria
2003
Doublures, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Canada
Looking Both Ways-Art of the African Diaspora, edited by Laurie Ann Farrell, published by the Museum for African Art, Long Island City, Queens, New York, USA
2002
Attitude, Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto, Japan
Double Dress, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Yinka Shonibare, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, USA
2001
Unpacking Europe, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Yinka Shonibare. Be-Muse, Museo Hendrik Christian Andersen, Rome, Italy
Enwezor, Okwui, Tricking the Mind: the work of Yinka Shonibare, in Authentic/Eccentric Conceptualism in African Art, 49th Venice Biennale, Italy
Yinka Shonibare, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, USA
Vantage Point, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Bo01 City of Tomorrow, European Housing Expo, Malmo, Sweden
The Short Century, Museum Villa Stuck, München, Germany
Camouflage, Centre of Contemporary Art of Southern Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa
Give and Take, Serpentine, London, England
Bamgboyé, O. A. What is Print?, in Technology and Culture, Witte de With Center For Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2000
Intelligence, Tate Britain, London, England
South Meets West, Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland
Other Modernities, The London Institute, London, England
1999
Mirror’s Edge, Bildmuseet, Umea, Sweden
Dressing Down, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England
Heaven, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany
Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize, London, England
1998
Personal Effects: Sculpture & Belongings, Spacex Gallery, Exeter, England
Secret Victorians, Arts Council touring exhibition
Crossings, National Gallery of Canada, Ottowa, Canada
1997
Trade Routes: History and Geography, 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa
Present Tense, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Sensation, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
What, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, England
1996
Out of Order, Independent Art Space, London, England
Annotations 1, Institute of International Visual Arts, London, England
Inklusion: Exklusion, Steirischer Herbst, Graz, Austria
Jurassic Technology, Tenth Biennale of Sydney, Australia
Pledge Allegiance to A Flag?, London Printworks Trust, England
1995
Imagined Communities, National Touring Exhibition, The South Bank Centre, London, England
The Art of African Textiles: Technology, Tradition and Lurex, Barbican Centre, London, England
1994
Seen/unseen, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, England
1992
Barclays Young Artists Award, Serpentine, London, England
Awards and Residencies
2022
International Artist Award 2022, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Aspen, Colorado
2021
Whitechapel Art Icon Award 2021, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England
Hon. D. Lit. honoris causa of the University of London awarded by The Courtauld, London, England
2020
Robson Orr TenTen Award, Outset and Government Art Collection, UK
2019
Awarded the CBE: Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
2016
African Art Award, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC
Annual Visionaries! Awards, Museum of Art and Design, New York
2013
Royal Academician, The Royal Academy, London, England
2012
Fellow of University of the Arts, London, England
2010
The Royal Academy of Arts Charles Wollaston Award
Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art London, England
2008
Fourth Plinth Award Nominee, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, London, England
2007
Honorary Doctorate Degree, Huron University, London, Canada
2005
Awarded the MBE: Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
2004
IASPIS, International Artists' Studio Program in Stockholm, Sweden
2003
Fellow of Goldsmiths College, London, England
2001
Residency, Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
2000
Residency, MCA DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois
1999
Shortlisted Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize
1998
Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Visual Artists
Royal Society of Arts, Art for Architecture Award
1992
Barclays Young Artists Award, Serpentine Gallery, London, England
London Arts Board Artist's Grant, London, England
Public Collections (selected)
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Arts Council Collection, London, England
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol, England
British Council, London, England
British Museum, London, England
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Ca’ Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice, Italy
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
C. Ludens Rignes Sculpture Collection, Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, Japan
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA
de Young Museum, San Francisco, California, USA
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Fondation Blachere, Apt, France
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Gerisch-Stiftung, Neumunster, Germany
Government Art Collection, UK
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, USA
Kurpfälzisches Museum Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, California, USA
Magasin 3, Stockholm, Sweden
MART Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Forth Worth, Texas, USA
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain
Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, Italy
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC, USA
New Art Gallery, Walsall, West Midlands, England
New Orleans Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, USA
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA
Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Nottingham, England
Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, England
Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco
Palmer Museum of Art, Penn State University, Pennsylvania, USA
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Royal Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, England
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, England
Salzburg Museum, Austria
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, USA
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, USA
Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Stichting de Onvoltooide, The Hague, Netherlands
Studio Museum in Harlem, Harlem, New York, USA
Tate Gallery, London, England
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
Vandenbroek Foundation, Sassenheim, Netherlands
Walker Arts Centre, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
Wroclaw Museum of Art, Poland
Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa