Born in London to Nigerian parents, he moved to Lagos at the age of three. Returning to England to study at Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art, London (1989) and received his MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London (1991).

Shonibare interdisciplinary practice employs physical materials such as Dutch wax textiles and bronze as vehicles for exploring complex historical, political, and cultural ideas. In doing so, the work uses material history as a lens for broader reflection, inviting a rethinking of how we perceive culture and encourage new ways of understanding the world around us.

In 2002, Shonibare was commissioned by Okwui Enwezor to create the installation, Gallantry and Criminal Conversation for Documenta XI. 2004, he was nominated for the Turner Prize, and in 2008 Shonibare's mid-career survey began at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney travelling to the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. in 2009. In 2010, his first public art commission, Nelson's Ship in a Bottle, was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London, and now resides in the permanent collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Elected a Royal Academician in 2013 and awarded a CBE in 2019, that same year his installation The British Library was acquired by Tate, London. In 2021, Shonibare received the Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon Award and later that year, he opened a major retrospective at the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg.

In November 2022, Shonibare launched Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation, a non-profit founded and developed by the artist. The Foundation is dedicated to facilitating cultural exchange through residencies, public programmes and exhibition opportunities for creative practitioners from around the world. The live/work residency spaces are set across sites in Lagos and a rural working farm in Ijebu, Ogun State.

In 2023, Shonibare was commissioned for the Sharjah Biennial 15 to create a series of new works, Decolonised Structures, and in November that year unveiled his largest outdoor sculpture, Hibiscus Rising, as part of Leeds 2023. In 2024, he presented a solo exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, London, titled Suspended States. That same year his installation Monument to the Restitution of the Mind and Soul featured in the Venice Biennale as part of the Nigerian Pavilion group show Nigeria Imaginary. In 2025, he showcased his first major solo exhibition on the African continent, Safiotra [Hybridités/Hybridities], at Fondation H, Madagascar.

Shonibare’s works are in notable museum collections internationally, including the Tate Collection, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and VandenBroek Foundation, The Netherlands.

His first solo exhibition at Mennour will take place in October 2026 at 5 rue du Pont de Lodi, Paris