The Yinka Shonibare Room

This was SSE’s fourth art classroom and offers students and researchers an opportunity to explore themes such as globalization, cultural identity, the implications of colonialism, and the economic and political relationship between Africa and Europe.

Yinka Shonibare CBE is one of the world’s most widely recognized contemporary artists. He was born in London in 1962, grew up in Nigeria, and later returned to the United Kingdom to study art. Throughout his career, he has explored national identities in a global context. By examining colonialism, class, and cultural identity, his work reflects on the relationship between Africa and Europe and their economic and political histories.

Yinka Shonibare CBE works across multiple media, including painting, photography, performance, film, and sculpture. His signature material is colorful batik fabric, often perceived as African despite its global origins. The textiles are inspired by Indonesian design, mass-produced by the Dutch in the 19th century, and sold in West Africa, where they became widely adopted and are now closely associated with African identity.

The classroom includes a mural painting, black-and-white elements, and a small library with 107 hardback books, Dutch wax–printed cotton textiles, and white-painted wooden shelves. The room was created through a collaboration between SSE and the Princess Estelle Cultural Foundation.

The room was made possible through generous donations from Ola Källenius, Joakim Weidemanis, Thomas Ranje, and Steffen Karlsson.

More about Yinka Shonibare CBE

The sculpture Wind Sculpture in Bronze I on Djurgården by Yinka Shonibare CBE was acquired by the Princess Estelle Cultural Foundation and inaugurated on June 2, 2022, as the third sculpture in the Princess Estelle Sculpture Park on Royal Djurgården.

In 2004, Moderna Museet in Stockholm invited Yinka Shonibare to participate in a collaborative program. On that occasion, he created the artwork Vasa in a Bottle and the film Un Ballo in Maschera, produced in collaboration with SVT Drama.

(CBE is a title that Shonibare added to his name after being appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.)

Yinka Shonibare’s works are included in major international collections, including the Tate Collection, London; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome; and the VandenBroek Foundation, the Netherlands.