arts & entertainment

The Vero Beach Museum of Art (VBMA) is acquiring Wind Sculpture in Bronze VI, 2025, by British Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare, CBE (b. 1962), further strengthening the institution’s distinct and growing collection of global contemporary art. Towering over six feet tall, the work is part of a recent series of hand-painted sculptures by the artist that captures the dynamic movement of fabric billowing in the wind. Wind Sculpture will remain on view at the museum through April 26, 2026, and will be featured prominently in the sculpture garden of VBMA’s expanded new museum, designed by Allied Works and Unknown Studio, opening in 2028.

Wind Sculpture in Bronze VI was elected for purchase and acquired with the support of the VBMA’s Athena Society, which has played a pivotal role in shaping the Museum’s permanent collection by voting on and supporting major acquisitions each year. Since its inception, the Athena Society has helped the VBMA strategically grow its modern and contemporary collection, with acquisitions including works by Anish Kapoor, Refik Anadol, Marguerite Zorach, Joseph Stella, and Charles Sheeler.

Coinciding with the acquisition, Shonibare is gifting the museum La Méduse, a chromogenic print on aluminum from 2008 that references Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa, evoking the harrowing fate of a French ship that was shipwrecked off the coast of Senegal. This earlier work relates conceptually to the new Wind series.

“VBMA is thrilled to add these two remarkable artworks by Yinka Shonibare to its permanent holdings. We extend a heartfelt thank you to the Athena Society for their ongoing support of VBMA’s collections,” said VBMA Executive Director Brady Roberts.

Yinka Shonibare, CBE, grew up between the United Kingdom and Nigeria, an experience that continues to shape his exploration of migration and cultural exchange. As a child, he moved with his family to Lagos, but the artist later returned to London to study art. During his studies, a tutor prompted Shonibare to critically examine ideas of authenticity and multiculturalism in his practice.

The Wind Sculpture series continues Shonibare’s exploration of identity and culture, drawing on the form of ship sails that enabled imperial expansion and global trade. The artist abstracts the sail motif and incorporates the bright patterns of Dutch wax fabric—a material often associated with West Africa despite its origins in Indonesian batik and its manufacture by the Dutch—transforming it into a dynamic, flowing form.

“Shonibare has described his aim in this series as ‘sculpting empty space,’ producing forms that appear weightless despite being cast in bronze,” explains VBMA Chief Curator Caitlin Swindell. “Resembling sails billowing in the wind and rendered in the bright, colorful patterns characteristic of Dutch wax fabric, the work conveys both movement and fragility.”

Yinka Shonibare’s work can be found in the collections of museums across the globe, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, British Museum (London), Tate (London), National Museum of African Art (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), Dallas Museum of Art, and the Milwaukee Art Museum, among others.