About the Artwork

The American Library Collections and The Great Migration Collections are a celebration of the diversity of the American population and an instigator of discovery and debate. The installation consists of hundreds of books covered in the artist’s signature Dutch wax printed textiles. On the spines of many of these books are, printed in gold, the names of people who immigrated, or whose antecedents immigrated to the United States. On other books are the names of African Americans who relocated or whose parents relocated out of the American South during the Great Migration.

The American Library Collection: Art Historians, Economists, Educators, Journalists and Social Scientists includes the names of people in these fields, both celebrated and less well-known, all of whom have contributed significantly to their profession. These names include Carol Duncan, Barbara Bergmann, Audre Lorde, Stan Honda and W. E. B. Du Bois.

The Great Migration: Actors, Artists, Dancers, Musicians, and Writers includes the names of people in these fields, who participated in or are descendants of those who were part of the Great Migration from 1916 to 1970, in the United States. This mass movement of African Americans from the rural Southern states to the urban Northern states of the United States was caused by poor economic conditions as well as racial segregation and discrimination. It also saw the development of African American’s establishing influential communities of their own within the then-largest cities in the United States. These names include Angela Davis, Jacob Lawrence, Morgan Freeman, Ella Fitzgerald and Dora Dean.

A further set of books within the library features the names of people who have spoken out against immigration, equality or diversity in America.

These series are inspired by the ongoing debates about migration and diversity. It represents those seen as the ‘other’ who have made a valuable contribution to the nation’s history. However, it also looks at the people who have spoken out against those they don’t see as ‘truly American’ to further explore these complex issues at the forefront of American life today.

Artist's Biography

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA (b. 1962) in London, UK, studied Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art, London (1989) and received his MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London (1991).

His interdisciplinary practice uses citations of Western art history and literature to question the validity of contemporary cultural and national identities within the context of globalization. Through examining race, class and the construction of cultural identity, his works comment on the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe, and their respective economic and political histories.

In 2004, Shonibare was nominated for the Turner Prize and in 2008, his mid-career survey began at Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, travelling in 2009 to the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. In 2010, his first public art commission ‘Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle’ was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London and is in the permanent collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

In 2013, he was elected a Royal Academician and was awarded the honour of ‘Commander of the Order of the British Empire’ in 2019. His installation ‘The British Library’ was acquired by Tate, London in 2019.

Shonibare was awarded the prestigious Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon Award in March 2021. A major retrospective of his work opened at the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg in May 2021 followed by his co-ordination of The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London which opened in September 2021.

The survey solo exhibition, ‘Yinka Shonibare CBE: Planets in My Head’, opened in April 2022 at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan followed by the unveiling in June 2022 of a major new sculptural work, ‘Wind Sculpture in Bronze I’ at Royal Djurgården, Stockholm.

In November 2022, Shonibare hosted the international launch of Guest Artists Space (G. A. S.) Foundation, a non-profit founded and developed by the artist. The Foundation is dedicated to facilitating cultural exchange through residencies, public programmes and exhibition opportunities for creative practitioners from around the world. The multi-use live/work residency spaces are set across sites in Lagos and a rural working farm in Ijebu, Ogun State.

To mark Sharjah Biennial's 30th anniversary in February 2023, Shonibare was commissioned to create a series of new works for the exhibition.

In Spring 2024, Shonibare’s major solo exhibition ‘Yinka Shonibare CBE RA: Suspended States’ opened at the Serpentine Gallery, London. He also exhibited a new body of work as part of the official Nigerian Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale.

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