Yinka Shonibare CBE: African Bird Magic (Sokoke Scops-Owl and Okuyi Mask)

Yinka Shonibare CBE: African Bird Magic (Sokoke Scops-Owl and Okuyi Mask)

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Yinka Shonibare CBE

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Yinka Shonibare CBE

African Bird Magic (Sokoke Scops-Owl and Okuyi Mask), 2024

Screenprint with archival pigment print on Somerset Satin Enhanced 330gsm paper

Paper: 74.0 x 60.0 cm

Image: 60.0 x 48.0 cm

Edition of 30

Hand signed and numbered by the artist

£2,160 (incl. VAT)

This limited edition is released on the occasion of Yinka Shonibare CBE’s exhibition Suspended States at Serpentine. The screenprint is created in response to the African Bird Magic quilt series featured in the exhibition, which depicts endangered birds including the Sokoke Scops Owl featured here. An African mask hovers over the owl, symbolising ancestors who were once custodians of the bird’s habitat before colonialism and industrialisation endangered many species. Shonibare often incorporates African masks in his work to highlight the historical journey of the masks to the West, often tied to colonial exploitation and trade, which influenced modernist artists like Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Amadeo Modigliani (1884-1920).

Shonibare celebrates these masks, explaining ‘they become symbols of African empowerment to challenge the consequences of Western colonial industrialisation in the degradation of the African environment.’ African Bird Magic series also serve as a warning, reflecting on the consequences of industrialisation and its subsequent ecological impact, and reminding us of the species that may yet become extinct if we do not take care of our environment.

Courtesy Cristea Roberts Gallery and Yinka Shonibare CBE

Yinka Shonibare CBE

See more products by Yinka Shonibare CBE

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA (b. 1962, London, United Kingdom) has an interdisciplinary practice which uses Western art history and literature to question the validity of contemporary cultural and national identities within the context of globalisation. As a celebrated British-Nigerian artist working between London and Lagos, Shonibare was awarded the honour of ‘Commander of the Order of the British Empire’ in 2019.

In 2004, he was nominated for the Turner Prize and in 2008 and in 2010, his first public art commission, Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London. The Tetley commissioned Shonibare’s Hibiscus Rising, a major public memorial in Leeds for David Oluwale, which opened in November 2023.

In November 2022, Shonibare launched Guest Artists Space (G. A. S.) Foundation, a non-profit based in Nigeria dedicated to facilitating cultural exchange through residencies, public programmes, and exhibition opportunities.

Shonibare’s works are in notable museum collections both local and international, including the Tate Collection, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

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