Yinka Shonibare's kaleidoscopic waves are nothing short of mesmerising. Despite their stillness, the hand-painted bronze sculptures seem to crest and break in slow motion. They are bold, joyous, and transfixing.
In his eighth solo exhibition with James Cohan, the British-Nigerian artist showcases these brilliant bronze sculptures alongside a new series of pictorial quilts and his first tapestry.
In a separate room to the bronze works, Shonibare presents 'Abstract Spiritual' (2023), a series of textile works made from patchwork, appliqué, embroidery, and Dutch wax-printed cotton.
More recently, Shonibare has ventured into tapestry. Modern Spiritual (Fang Ngil, Kumbaduba) (2023) delves into African aesthetics and Modernist abstraction. Two mask outlines emerge from a checkerboard of vivid indigo, blue, and green, with loose threads hanging from their features.
Shonibare's subject references avantgarde painter Francis Picabia's depiction of masks, while his choice of medium harks back to the Modernist era when artists like Henri Matisse and Joan Miró revived tapestry as an artistic medium.
Boomerang: Returning to African Abstraction is on view at James Cohan's 48 Walker Street location in New York until 22 December 2023. The exhibition preludes his solo exhibition opening at Serpentine Galleries in London in April 2024.
