MIAMI, FL.- As part of its ongoing New Work series, Miami Art Museum will present Yinka Shonibare, MBE: A Flying Machine for Every Man, Woman and Child, a new installation created specifically for MAM. The site-specific work will explore Miami’s role as a destination for both tourists and immigrants and as a symbol of freedom and promise. Shonibare’s installation will premiere on October 31 and will remain on view in MAM’s “New Work” gallery through January 18, 2009.

“Yinka Shonibare’s references to immigration and the legacy of colonialism add an important perspective to the contemporary international dialogue at MAM,” said Director Terence Riley. “His work responds in unique ways to different layers of culture and history, just as Miami has developed its unique multicultural character through a dynamic blend of people and cultures from throughout the world.”

Born in Britain to Nigerian parents, Yinka Shonibare is best known for his installations and photographs that juxtapose African and European imagery, often modeling his compositions on canonized works from Western art history. The artist’s installations frequently include headless, anonymous mannequins dressed in elaborate Victorian fashions. These stunning costumes are made of batik fabrics like those first sold to Africans by Dutch traders in the 19th Century. Though they are manufactured in Britain and the Netherlands, these brightly-colored printed textiles remain strongly associated with Africa. Shonibare references this common misattribution in examining the larger cultural misconceptions and mythologies of colonialism.

The installation at MAM will feature an idealized nuclear family clothed in Shonibare’s wax-printed attire, each straddling a human-powered flying machine modeled after 19th century drawings. “A Flying Machine for Every Man, Woman and Child re-imagines the aspiration of flying, and by extension the dreams and promises that Miami has come to represent,” writes Shonibare. “The attempt at flying against all odds is a metaphor for the monumental efforts made by some of the inhabitants of Miami to reach a city which represents the promise of America.” The work also evokes the flights taken to Miami by millions of tourists seeking glamour and entertainment. Seeming to pre-date modern air travel, Shonibare’s machines symbolize the freedom sought by emigrants and tourists alike.

A free four-color Gallery Notes brochure, with an essay by exhibition curator Peter Boswell, will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.

Yinka Shonibare is organized by Miami Art Museum and curated by Assistant Director for Programs/Senior Curator Peter Boswell as part of New Work, a series of projects by leading contemporary artists. It is funded in part by a grant from the Funding Arts Network, Inc. and MAM’s Annual Exhibition Fund.

Yinka Shonibare, MBE was born in London and moved to Lagos, Nigeria, at the age of three. He returned to London to study Fine Art, first at the Byam Shaw School of Art, London, and then at Goldsmiths College, London, where he received his MA. Shonibare¹s work explores issues of race and class through the media of painting, sculpture, photography and, most recently, film. Shonibare has exhibited in leading museums worldwide and participated in seminal exhibitions such as: Sensation, Royal Academy of Arts, London (1997); 49th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2001); Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany (2002); Double Dress, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, touring; Africa Remix, various venues (2005-6) and Check-List Luanda Pop, African Pavilion, 52nd Venice Biennale (2007). Shonibare was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2004 and in 2005 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. Most recently his proposal for a temporary public sculpture was selected for the Fourth Plinth site in London’s Trafalgar Square. In 2008 Shonibare will present a major retrospective solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Sydney, which tours to the Brooklyn Museum, New York, in 2009. Yinka Shonibare, MBE, is represented by Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, and James Cohan Gallery, New York.