The inaugural exhibition in the Driehaus Museum’s new contemporary art series focuses on Yinka Shonibare MBE, an artist who draws on history, politics, and fashion influences to explore and critique our understanding of the past. This will be Shonibare’s first museum survey exhibition in Chicago and features four bodies of work, from his early series of photographs to his most recent sculptures and installation pieces. All of the British-Nigerian artist’s work reflects the intersection of his English and African heritage. While at first he seems to be celebrating the eras his artwork depicts, upon closer inspection it is clear he is rejecting the attitudes and trappings of those past periods in history. 

A Tale of Today, the Driehaus Museum’s new contemporary art series, will provide opportunities for audiences to see the history of the Gilded Age through different lenses, and explore the social, class, racial and economic issues that make that history relevant to society now.