Talk

Yinka Shonibare & Afua Hirsch

In Conversation

Tuesday 5 October 2021 6.30 - 7.30pm

Online event

£8 (£5 Concession)

Tickets will be available to Friends of the RA at 11am on Wednesday 25 August and to the general public at 11am on Thursday 26 August.

Summer Exhibition 2021

Go to the exhibition

Supported by

Yinka Shonibare RA and Afua Hirsch discuss how this year’s Summer Exhibition is reclaiming the magic and joy of creating art.

Join this year’s Summer Exhibition Coordinator Yinka Shonibare and writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch in this online event. They discuss his vision for the exhibition, the significance of reclaiming magic in art, and how an inclusive art world can engage with and value artists who have developed their practice in different ways.

The RA’s Summer Exhibition is the world’s largest open submission art show, bringing together art in all mediums by leading artists as well as new and emerging talent.

This year, Yinka Shonibare draws on the theme of ‘Reclaiming Magic’ to expand the conventional notion of art. Inviting self-taught artists, artists from non-Western contexts and artists with disabilities, he gives a platform to marginalised or overlooked practitioners who have historically been left out of a Western art narrative, bringing an exhibition that reflects the breadth and diversity of human expression.

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA is an interdisciplinary artist known for his exploration of colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalization. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2004, was elected a Royal Academician in 2013, and in 2019 was awarded the decoration of ‘Commander of the Order of the British Empire’ (CBE). Shonibare’s works are in notable museum collections across the world.

Afua Hirsch is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and documentary maker, and the founder of Born In Me productions, focused on elevating untold stories from diverse perspectives. She is a columnist for The Guardian and professor of journalism at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Her recent BBC documentary African Renaissance: Art and Power, explores the histories of Ethiopia, Senegal and Kenya through their art, music and culture.

This is an online event. There will be an opportunity for audience questions at the end of the event.

The event will be accompanied by speech to text transcription courtesy of Stagetext.

£8 (£5 Concession)

Tickets will be available to Friends of the RA at 11am on Wednesday 25 August and to the general public at 11am on Thursday 26 August.