One of our favorite places within Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park is the art exhibition space. In an enormous complex completely devoted to art and nature, there’s so much to see here. But as you excitedly venture through the front doors and traverse the gorgeous new entryway, plan time to peruse a landmark art exhibition before heading to the Butterflies are Blooming exhibit in the conservatory (running now) or exploring the vast sculpture gardens (perhaps once we stay above freezing temps here in Michigan). 

Entitled Yinka Shonibare CBE: Planets in My Head, the exhibit is richly colored, deeply nuanced, intensely thoughtful, and extraordinarily beautiful. The exhibit runs from April 1 – October 23, 2022.

We were lucky enough to preview this extraordinary exhibit and spend time the art (as one does). I meandered from room to room, pausing to take in a sculpture, wonder at a precarious stack of books, read the carvings on a desk (or three), peruse a bookshelf. I circled back again and again, finding new details and aspects of each piece, enamored with the fabric, concepts, history, context, intercultural aspects of this art.

The American Library Collection (Sports) (right bookcase) and (Politics) (left bookcase), 2017

Internationally renowned artist Yinka Shonibare was awarded the prestigious decoration of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2019. “This exhibition is one of Shonibare’s largest in the United States,” said David Hooker, President & CEO of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. “It will be a wonderful opportunity for hundreds of thousands of guests to experience works never before seen in the U.S. and learn more about this fascinating artist.”

The exhibition is comprised of decades of Shonibare’s work, which includes paintings, sculptures large and small, an entire wall of photographs (proving, indeed, that a picture paints a thousand words), and a special sculpture created especially for and premiering at this exhibition, Food Man.

Food Man (2021) encompasses the rich agricultural traditions of West Michigan (cherries! Celery!) and the world (West African yams, cacao pods!), while incorporating history (a 19th century cart), textiles, climate change (note the hot spots on Food Man’s globe head), food production, and sustainability. I circled the sculpture again and again, finding new details (and food items), while pondering the deep cultural and colonial contexts of both local and global agriculture. 

Food Man, 2021

We learned a great deal about Food Man from the incredibly knowledgeable Jochen Wierich, PhD, the Curator of Sculpture & Sculpture Exhibitions at Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, and Professor and Lena Meijer Endowed Chair in the History of Art at Aquinas College. 

I just want to note that when you have a chance to listen to an art professor, TAKE IT. We learned so much, and it utterly enriched our experience. 

Dr. Wierich noted in our interview that “Shonibare is inspired by his dual cultural heritage of Nigerian and British. There’s often a cultural mixing going on within his art. When Shonibare learned about West Michigan and our history of growing food and agriculture, he created this piece. When you look closely, you’ll see apples and food associated with West Michigan, but he also incorporates agriculture of West Africa. 

Viewers should look for opulence of food (you can think back to Dutch still lifes, where food is everything), and look at the details of the classic Shonibare playing with fabric and pattern (he always uses waxed fabric that goes back to the days of the Dutch first producing the batik-based fabric, then West Africans embracing it as their own, as a sign of their identity).”

Dr. Wierich also stated something that is essential to starting to understand this exhibit (and Shonibare’s body of work): “Shonibare shows you a beautifully-designed sculpture and then you realize there is a real serious issue, serious questions that his art addresses. He really spends his time with each piece, researching it, and coming up with the design.”

Here's my favorite piece:

The Age of Enlightenment - Gabrielle Emilie Le Tonneler de Breteull, Marquise du Chatelet, 2008, (above and below)

Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park notes, “Shonibare, a self-proclaimed "postcolonial hybrid" of British-Nigerian heritage, is one of the leading artistic voices in the global art world. Blending colorful Dutch wax batik with the fashion of upper-class Victorian culture, his sculptures often comment on current affairs and social justice. Born in London to Nigerian parents and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, where he spoke Yoruba at home and English at the private school he attended, Shonibare has a bicultural heritage. His identity is shaped by the postcolonial experience of having two nationalities; of growing up located between center and margin of the British Empire. Postcolonialism and hybridity define his artistic and political identity and are major themes in his prodigious artistic output. 

While Shonibare embraces cross-cultural mixing and exchange in his work, he never shies from alluding to the postcolonial scars of cultural imperialism and exploitation. As this sculpture exhibition reveals, Shonibare thinks globally and uses his artistic imagination to comment on colonialism, art history, environment, education, knowledge, food justice, and other subjects of universal concern.”

Bronze (Orange, Yellow & Blue), 2021

What did we love most about this exhibition? It’s hard to narrow it down! The colors in the fabrics were stunning, and drew the eye. Then, on a small scale, the details of the textiles showed such incredible artistry and vision. 

Step back, and realize there’s more going on than you expect! 

Girl Ballerina (2007) is a twist on the Degas ballerina. "The alphabet dress represents her youth and good education, while the gun behind her back suggests she is not so innocent." Who among us can guess what worlds we come from, and contain within?

Girl Ballerina, 2007, above and below

A subject painted and sculpted by many artists, including Rubens, The Three Graces (2001) is interpreted here with Yonibare’s signature thoughtfulness. The Three Graces are beautifully dressed with upper class Victorian styling, gorgeous West African fabric, a nod to commercialism, and no faces. To me, this piece turns colonialism on its head with questions of class, identity, and race. 

Three Graces, 2001, above and below

From immigrants climbing to a brighter future to a very human portrayal of the Big Three motor companies here in Michigan to bookshelves that require a closer look, this exhibition will make you think, dazzle you with beauty and form, and, like another favorite artist of mine, Kehinde Wiley, reinterpret art for today’s intercultural world.

Moving Up, 2021

Highly, highly recommended. 

The Big Three, 2008, above and below

Related exhibition events coming up this year:
Fashion in Contemporary Art 
Saturday, June 18, 11 am–12 pm 
Suzanne Eberle, PhD, Professor Emerita, Kendall College of Art and Design 

Abundance and Scarcity: Yinka Shonibare CBE and Food Justice 
Saturday, July 16, 11 am–12 pm 
Jochen Wierich, PhD, Assistant Curator & Researcher at Meijer Gardens and Associate Professor of Art History at Aquinas College 

Complex Embodiment: Yinka Shonibare and Disability 
Saturdays, September 3 and 10, 11 am–12 pm 
Jessica Cooley, PhD candidate in the art history department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison 

Yinka Shonibare and the Pan-African Imagination 
Saturday, October 1, 11 am–12 pm 
Antawan Byrd, PhD candidate in the art history department at Northwestern University, Weinberg Fellow, associate curator of photography and media at the Art Institute of Chicago 

A full list of exhibition activities can be found at MeijerGardens.org/Shonibare

Want to learn more about each piece? This is a fantastic interview with Mr. Yonibare and Dr. Wierich, via zoom:

Yinka Shonibare CBE: Planets in My Head is made possible by: Bill Padnos and Margy Kaye; the Louis and Helen Padnos Foundation; the Meijer Foundation, Frederik Meier Gardens & Sculpture Foundation; Botanic and Sculpture Societies of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park; and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, a Partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. This exhibition has been organized by the artist and Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park with the support of Stephen Friedman Gallery and James Cohan Gallery.

All photos courtesy and copyright Wandering Educators.