© Yinka Shonibare/courtesy the artist, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and James Cohan Gallery, New York

Yinka Shonibare, still from "Un Ballo in Maschera" (2004). Digital video, 32 min.

June 2009 Field Guide

Edward Tufte

Patricia Esquivias

No Sound

Richard Long

Irwin

“JOL”

Fleur Elise Noble

Julieta Aranda

Yinka Shonibare South African, U.K. Artists Donate Works for Charity Auction Invitation-Only Events Editor’s Picks: Art Basel Preview Miami’s Silver Lining 2009 Preview: New York Museum Shows Miami Madness Zoo: There's Still a Market for Happiness

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The first major exhibition surveying the career of the recently dubbed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) Yinka Shonibare features 21 works that present variations on the theme most urgent to the British-based Nigerian installation artist: European colonialism as it relates to contemporary African identity. The survey includes sculpture and two films, one of which, Un Ballo Maschera (2004), was inspired by Verdi’s opera of the same name. A highlight of the show will be the new site-specific piece Mother and Father Work Hard So I Can Play, placed throughout the museum’s lavish American period rooms. Reflecting upon American middle-class aspirations, the installation features mischievous headless mannequin children clad in fancy Afro-British finery, posing subtly amid the various chairs, armoires, and gilded mirrors.

brooklynmuseum.org

"Yinka Shonibare, MBE" originally appeared in the Summer 2009 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' Summer 2009 Table of Contents.