British artist Yinka Shonibare was born in London to Nigerian parents, and grew up between UK and Nigeria.

His sculptural work features typically headless mannequins that are dressed in eloborate costumes. Refrencing English painting and literature of Wilde and Hogarth, Shonibare creates a fictious narrative by use of Africanized fabric design (Dutch wax printed cotton) and colours in creating his brilliantly tailored elaborate victorian dresses.

The best part of this exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum is Shonibare’s infiltration of the Period Rooms. Here Shonibare’s headless but dynamic figures populate and animate the static period rooms, creating a very interesting dialogue of the surroundings and the histories of these spaces.