The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University will present 'Yinka Shonibare: Sanctuary' from February 11, 2026, through January 3, 2027, mounting the U.S. debut of 'Sanctuary City' (2024), a major installation by British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare. The exhibition centers on 18 scaled-down replicas of historical and contemporary buildings that have served as places of refuge for persecuted and vulnerable people across centuries.
Installed in a darkened gallery, the work uses black-painted structures that glow from within. Their interiors are lined with Shonibare’s signature Dutch wax textiles, a material presence that turns the miniature buildings into a luminous field of shelter-related forms. The museum describes the installation as a constellation of sanctuary havens that appear as beacons of light and hope.
Shonibare’s practice has long engaged colonial histories, migration, and cultural hybridity, and the museum frames 'Sanctuary City' within that broader body of work. According to the exhibition text, the installation traces the concept of sanctuary from ancient temples to modern safe houses while reflecting on the fragility of protection amid global displacement, rising nationalism, and humanitarian crisis. The artist’s own language in the museum materials underscores the urgency of the subject, with Shonibare noting that shelter is “one of the most pressing political concerns right now.”
The Rose says the exhibition asks viewers to consider who is granted safety, who is excluded, and what responsibility societies bear in offering refuge today. The focus on sanctuary also aligns with the museum’s broader interest in thematic exhibitions and contemporary art that connects formal invention to social questions. Since 1961, the Rose has presented modern and contemporary art, including surveys of leading artists and innovative new commissions.
'Yinka Shonibare: Sanctuary' is organized by Dr. Gannit Ankori, Henry and Lois Foster Director and Chief Curator at the Rose Art Museum, and Professor of Fine Arts and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University. The exhibition is supported by the Further Forward Foundation, the Sherman H. Starr Family Foundation, Tia Collection, James Cohan Gallery in New York, and Goodman Gallery, with locations in Johannesburg, Cape Town, London, and New York.
The Rose Art Museum’s current exhibitions page places 'Yinka Shonibare: Sanctuary' among its 2026–27 program, alongside 'Jenna Gribbon: Entwined', 'ChromaForm', and 'En/Lighten: Material & Metaphor'. The museum notes that its galleries will reopen on August 19 after a summer closure for installation, while 'Yinka Shonibare: Sanctuary' remains listed for February 11, 2026, through January 3, 2027, at the Rose Art Museum in Waltham.
