Yinka Shonibare studied Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art, London, and received his MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London. His interdisciplinary practice references Western art history and literature to question cultural and national identities within the context of globalisation, engaging with race, class, and the interwoven histories of Africa and Europe.

He has exhibited internationally at Serpentine South, London (2024), the Nigerian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2024), and Foundation H, Madagascar (2025), his first major solo exhibition on the African continent. Other highlights include commissions for the Sharjah Biennial (2023), a mid-career survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and Brooklyn Museum, New York (2008–09), and the Fourth Plinth commission Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle at Trafalgar Square, London (2010).

His works are in the collections of Tate Modern, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome; and the VandenBroek Foundation, The Netherlands. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2004, elected a Royal Academician in 2013, and appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2019.