Yinka Shonibare: Freedom

A brand new artwork on the pavement of Deptford High Street, by internationally renowned artist Yinka Shonibare CBE.

Yinka Shonibare CBE is an interdisciplinary artist, who makes work exploring cultural identity. His work uses citations of Western art history and literature to question the validity of contemporary cultural and national identities within the context of globalization.

His first public art commission ‘Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle’ (2010) was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square and is now part of the National Maritime Museum’s permanent collection. His installation ‘The British Library’ is currently on display at Tate Modern. A major retrospective of his work opened at the Museum der Moderne (Salzburg) in May 2021 followed by his coordination of The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (London) which opened in September.

In 2004, Shonibare was nominated for the Turner Prize and, in 2019, he was awarded the honour of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).  Last year, he was awarded the prestigious Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon Award.

Shonibare’s works are in notable museum collections around the world including the Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum, and National Museum of African Art (London); Smithsonian Institute (Washington DC); Museum of Modern Art (New York); Moderna Museet (Stockholm); the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago); National Gallery of Modern Art (Rome); and VandenBroek Foundation (The Netherlands).