YINKA SHONIBARE mbe
Archival inkjet print with hand-applied gold foil on Somerset Satin Tub Sized 330gsm 
42 × 29·7 cm 
Edition #10 of 25
 
Yinka Shonibare spent his childhood in Lagos, Nigeria and returned to London to study Fine Art. It was at college that he caught a serious virus that gave him a debilitating disability. Despite or perhaps even encouraged by his prohibitive circumstances, Shonibare has become one of the most prolific and successful African artists working in the UK with a succession of personal accolades bestowed by the art and political establishments.
Shonibare’s work explores issues of race and class as well as our cultural and national definitions. His trademark sculptural material is the brightly coloured ‘African’ batik fabric originally inspired by Indonesian design, mass-produced by the Dutch and eventually sold to the colonies in West Africa. In the 1960s the material became a new sign of African identity and independence. His work takes a playful and surreal aesthetic twist on the traditions of the Western art establishment.
For the Portfolio the artist has set an intense graphic image of the elusive black tulip amongst the gaiety of other more common varieties, some of which include a hint of African-Dutch batik.