CHRIS OFILI

Early Years

Chris Ofili was born in Manchester in 1968, the second child of May and Michael, who had arrived from Nigeria three years previously. May and Michael both worked for McVitie’s biscuits. When Chris Ofili was 11, his father moved back to Nigeria—he later found out his dad had another family. Ofili describes his mother holding the family together “with a lot of dignity and strength”. Art didn’t figure in the teenage Ofili’s life—he preferred playing football. However, when he decided he would like to study furniture design, he was encouraged to enrol in a one-year foundation art course at Tameside College. Encouraged by tutor Bill Clark, Ofili elected to specialise in painting, beginning with self-portraits and imaginary Black characters. He then studied at Chelsea College of Arts in London, where he met Peter Doig. After graduation in 1991, he went to the Royal College of Art for his MFA, during which time he attended a workshop in Zimbabwe, followed by time spent travelling around the country—this was his first interaction with elephant dung, which he collected and brought home.

Chris Ofili: Artworks

While Ofili’s early work was influenced by Jean-Michel Basquiat, George Condo and Georg Baselitz, his 1990s pieces—when Ofili was considered part of the Young British Artists movement, even though he may not have felt any connection to it —combined collage, brightly painted dots, glitter and elephant dung. His controversial The Holy Virgin Mary (1996) depicted a Black Virgin Mary on a canvas covered with pins, resin and glitter. A piece of elephant dung represented her breast, while angels flying around her came from images he had cut out of pornographic magazines.

From the same period, Afrodizzia (1996) features the cut-out photographs of famous Black people (including Diana Ross and Miles Davis) on top of a background of shifting colours. He also began a series of small watercolour drawings of Black men and women—Afromuses—which he painted in 15 minutes each morning.

Blossom (1997) features Ofili’s signature materials of elephant dung, glitter and resin. The work has resin dots on its surface and the title itself is spelled out vertically (inside balls of dung) while the main subject considers traditional depictions of the mother and child: the woman has an exposed breast and a flower in her hair. Blossom sold for £2.12 million at Christie’s in 2025.

Ofili moved to Trinidad in 2005 and his art became more colourful, moving away from dung but starting to include elements such as gold leaf.

The Seven Deadly Sins_ exhibition (2023) comprised seven huge oil and charcoal paintings, as well as 10 small etchings on paper using the Suminagashi marbling technique. The large works were elaborate, an abstract-figurative hybrid characterised by floral and foliage motifs, as well as a sense of movement.

Our Times: Hunters in pink shade lure butterflies into their griffin’s chain link lair (2015–2026) debuted at Art Basel 2026, a kaleidoscopic, dreamlike piece evoking themes from Trinidad Carnival.

Chris Ofili: Select Awards

• Turner Prize (1998)
• South Bank Award: Visual Arts, London (2004)
• Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for Services to the Arts (2017)

Chris Ofili: Select Exhibitions

Select Solo Exhibitions

• Chris Ofili, Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin (2026)
• Chris Ofili: Joyful Sorrow, David Zwirner, Paris and Victoria Miro, Venice two-part exhibition
• Chris Ofili: The Caged Bird’s Song, Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh (2024)
• Chris Ofili: The Seven Deadly Sins, Victoria Miro, London (2023)
• Chris Ofili: Harvest, Victoria Miro, Venice (2022)
• Chris Ofili: The Othello Prints, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York City (2022)
• Chris Ofili: Dangerous Liaisons, David Zwirner, New York City (2019)
• Chris Ofili: Weaving Magic, The National Gallery, London (2017) [catalogue] Chris Ofili, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
• Chris Ofili: Night and Day, New Museum, New York (2014) (and touring)
• Chris Ofili, Tate Britain, London (2010)
• Chris Ofili: The Blue Rider, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (2005)
• Chris Ofili: Within Reach, British Pavilion, 50th Venice Biennale, Venice (2003)
• Chris Ofili Watercolours, Gallery Side 2, Tokyo (2001)
• Chris Ofili: Pimpin ain’t easy but it sure is fun, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (1997)
• Chris Ofili, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York City (1995)

Select Group Exhibitions

• The 90s, Tate Britain, London (2026)
• Destiny is a Rose: The Eileen Harris Norton Collection, Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles (2026)
• Victoria Miro: 40 Years, Victoria Miro, London (2025)
• David Zwirner: 30 Years, David Zwirner, Los Angeles (2024)
• Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica, Art Institute of Chicago (and touring) (2024)
• Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York City (2023)
• In the Black Fantastic, Hayward Gallery, London (and touring) (2022)
• Life Between Islands; Caribbean-British Art 50s–Now, Tate Britain, London (2021) (and touring)
• Edge of Visibility, International Print Centre, New York City (2018)
• 56th Venice Biennale: All the World’s Futures, Venice (2015)
• La Triennale 2012, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012)
• Being British, The Stephen Lawrence Gallery, University of Greenwich, London (2009)
• The Compulsive Line: Etching 1900 to Now, MoMA, New York City (2006)
• Happiness: A Survival Guide for Art and Life, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2003)
• 12th Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2000)
• Young British Artists, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Paddington (1996)

Further Reading

• Artist profile page at David Zwirner
• Artist profile page at Victoria Miro
• Chris Ofili’s Instagram
• 2024 interview in the New Yorker

Chris Ofili FAQs

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