It seems fitting that an exhibition of Nigerian-British artist Yinka Shonibare’s work is being shown at the Brooklyn Museum, located in a borough where more cultures meet daily in the Atlantic/Pacific subway station than in high season in a trading port of call.
A signature of Shonibare’s work is the use of Dutch wax fabric, African-inspired, vibrantly colored and patterned yardage goods produced in Europe and sold in Africa and elsewhere. The fabric is a rich and effective symbol for the intersection of cultures, from a sociological standpoint and commerce-wise. Shonibare (who, not insignificantly, uses the honorary title MBE after his name) creates elaborate colonial costumes with the prints, boldly mixing them and sparing no detail. read more
I’ve always had a certain fondness for British conceptual artists Gilbert & George, now the objects of a show at the Brooklyn Museum; concurrently, Creative Time will screen two of their early films (1970’s A Portrait of the Artists As Young Men and 1972’s The Nature of Our Looking) on MTV’s huge HD screen in Times Square.
Gilbert & George’s large stained-glass-like artwork obviously bring to mind antecedents found in churches and cathedrals, except with rather different subject matter. (Semi-naked men can actually be found on church walls, but syringes and excrement…not so much.) But most of all I love the pair’s po-faced eccentricity, the fact that they don’t just make art: They’ve turned their own life into an art project that’s completely consistent with what they exhibit in museums and galleries. read more
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