
Chris Ofili
Siesta of the Soul, 2010

This edition comes unframed. The price excludes tax and shipping. As is traditional in editions …

Turner Prize-winning Young British Artist (YBA) Chris Ofili draws inspiration from an eclectic array of popular, artistic, and religious sources, from the Bible and William Blake to blaxploitation films, hip hop, and his Nigerian heritage. His large-scale paintings—combining rippling dots of paint, drifts of glitter, collaged images, and most famously, elephant dung—work together in the service of a complex narrative about African culture, black stereotypes, history, and exoticism. His well-known and highly controversial work The Holy Virgin Mary (1996) comprised oil paint, glitter, polyester resin, and paper collage and depicted a black Madonna surrounded by images of female genitalia extracted from pornographic magazines, and lumps of dung. In 1999, New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani had the work removed from the "Sensation" exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Ofili's later work adopts simpler, more pared-down forms with similar themes.


This edition comes unframed. The price excludes tax and shipping. As is traditional in editions publishing, prices will rise as an edition starts to sell out. Proceeds from the sale of limited edition artworks directly support Tate.

Turner Prize-winning Young British Artist (YBA) Chris Ofili draws inspiration from an eclectic array of popular, artistic, and religious sources, from the Bible and William Blake to blaxploitation films, hip hop, and his Nigerian heritage. His large-scale paintings—combining rippling dots of paint, drifts of glitter, collaged images, and most famously, elephant dung—work together in the service of a complex narrative about African culture, black stereotypes, history, and exoticism. His well-known and highly controversial work The Holy Virgin Mary (1996) comprised oil paint, glitter, polyester resin, and paper collage and depicted a black Madonna surrounded by images of female genitalia extracted from pornographic magazines, and lumps of dung. In 1999, New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani had the work removed from the "Sensation" exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Ofili's later work adopts simpler, more pared-down forms with similar themes.