Yinka Shonibare: African Spirits of Modernism

Colourful and thoughtful exhibition over two of the Stephen Friedman Galleries of new work by Yinka Shonibare.

The work explores the relationship between African Aesthetics and western modernism. The first room was three large sculptures of mythical hyrid beings like classical statues with their heads replaces by replicas of the African masks collected by Picasso and painted in Shonibare’s signature Ankara fabric patterns.

The second room was an installation of masks in bright colours, shown here, with archive film of African influences in the early 20th century. Over the road the second gallery had quilts in the signature fabrics in Harlequin patterns as another nod to Picasso.

I am fond of Shonibare’s work when it appears in various exhibitions and it was interesting to see it a selecting of it on it’s own to appreciate the subtlety of the ideas it is portraying.

Closes 31 July 2021

 

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