To take stock of the past year, Artforum asked an international group of artists to select a single exhibition or event that most memorably caught their attention in 2022.TIONA NEKKIA McCLODDENRhea Dillon (Gladstone Gallery, New York) I avoid openings. The neglect of the art that can occur is too painful. Yet there I was, staring at this object leaning tenderly against the wall, its wood grain perfectly exposed. African mahogany. A drawer. A frame. The spade with “hearts.” The work has such an intellectual and formal elegance that it quieted the entire room. Through Dillon’s stealth use of
Yinka Shonibare CBE, RA Photo: James Mollison
Last month, figures from across the international art world appeared on screen at the Whitechapel Gallery’s virtual gala to celebrate Yinka Shonibare CBE (RA), their designated “art icon” for 2021. The “i-word” can have cringeworthy connotations, but in this case, no one felt it was too hyperbolic a handle for this much-loved pioneering artist, who for more than three decades, has used his multifarious art to address the vexed legacy of colonialism, a quest that has never been more relevant than in the current moment. Shonibare is also a shining example of philanthropy, funding ambitious, creative residency projects in both London and Lagos, and now, as the recently appointed coordinator of the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, he is set to shake up that most traditional bastion of white Western art traditions.