The British Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare was given carte blanche for his first major solo exhibition on the African continent. Safiotra [Hybridities] at the Fondation H in Antananarivo, Madagascar, will include several of Shonibare’s sculptures, such as Alien Woman on Flying Machine (2011) and Refugee Astronaut X (2024), as well as some of his lesser-known quilt works. The main piece in the show will be The African Library (2018), a massive installation comprising some 6,000 books wrapped in Shonibare’s signature Dutch wax fabrics, which celebrates key figures in postcolonial Africa, such as Nelson Mandela and Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah.
In addition to his work, Shonibare is also curating a section of the exhibition that will feature work by 19 artists from Africa and its diaspora from the Fondation H collection, including El Anatsui, Amina Agueznay, Ibrahim Mahama Billie Zangewa. Shonibare explains that he selected artists that are “pushing the boundaries of material in art”.
Yinka Shonibare’s The African Library (2018) Collection Fondation H; Madagascar; Avec l’autorisation de !’artiste et Goodman Gallery; Cape Town; Johannesburg et Landres © Goodman Gallery
While Shonibare has previously shown his work in solo shows on the continent, including at Goodman Gallery’s Johannesburg and Cape Town spaces, this is the first time such an expansive body of work will be presented. “It’s not that I didn’t want to [have an exhibition of this size],” Shonibare says, “it’s just that I didn’t have the invitation to do that.” He says that “it is important” for him to show his work on the continent because of his Nigerian heritage.
Shonibare says that around 20 years ago he was invited by Bisi Silva, the late Nigerian curator and founder of the Centre for Contemporary Art in Lagos, to give a talk in the Nigerian city as well as to put on an exhibition. But they were unable to find “an adequate space at the time” to host such a show, Shonibare says.
However, since then there has been a proliferation of spaces across the continent. These include his very own Guests Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation in Lagos, which is collaborating on the exhibition with Fondation H. Shonibare praised Fondation H for being “very strong in supporting artists,” which he says is why this partnership was “a no-brainer, really”. As part of the collaboration, the Malagasy artist Joey Aresoa will be in residency in Lagos later this year.
• Safiotra [Hybridities], Fondation H, Antananarivo, 11 April-28 February
