Goodman Gallery is pleased to present Yinka Shonibare’s Earth Pictures, an exhibition that explores the profound impact of Western colonisation and industrialisation on nature and climate change across the African continent. Through his masks and a new series of quilts, Yinka Shonibare draws attention to endangered species and the abundance of nature, while also highlighting how human actions negatively affect our planet. The exhibition runs concurrently with the artist’s first major exhibition on the African continent, Safiotra [Hybridités/Hybridities] on view at Madagascar’s Fondation H.

“I deal with post-colonialism in my work and the environmental issue is of course closely related to this… The poorest countries emit the least pollution into the environment and they suffer the consequences disproportionately” – Shonibare speaking to The Art Newspaper, July 2024

A new series of quilts produced for the exhibition titled Nature Works will make their global debut in Johannesburg and underscores the polluting consequences of extractive processes. Through striking composition, vivid colour and intricate needlework, Shonibare creates beauty in ultimately dystopian landscapes that illustrate the consequences of industrial over-exploitation in Africa. The history of colonisation on the continent has always centred on the extraction of both human and natural resources. The series of quilts here, portray landscapes as a genre which is to be analysed and debated. Human intervention in the landscape, whether it be the burning of gas flares in Nigeria or the damage to surface soil through the oil well drilling in Algeria, contribute to environmental destruction and the broader impacts of climate change and its disproportionate impact on the Global South.