’s (b. 1968) atmospheric and enigmatic paintings investigate the intersection of desire, identity, and representation. Portraying characters from a range of aesthetic and cultural sources through a kaleidoscopic visual mode that bridges abstraction and figuration, his works serve as sites for journeys of creative transformation. Born in Manchester, England, Ofili received his BFA from the Chelsea School of Art, London, in 1991 and his MFA from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1993. He has been working with David Zwirner since 2005.

, a major site-specific mural by Ofili, was unveiled at Tate Britain, London, and will remain on long-term view. In 2022, the Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, presented 

, in conjunction with a yearlong festival centered on Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s Shakespeare-inspired jazz piece. In 2017, the National Gallery, London, presented 

, which marked the first time the artist had worked in the medium of tapestry. In 2012, Ofili designed sets and costumes for 

, a collaborative interdisciplinary project organized with The Royal Ballet in London. The artist’s first major solo museum exhibition in the United States, 

 (2014–2015), was held at the New Museum, New York, and subsequently traveled to the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado.

Other monographic exhibitions have taken place at the Arts Club of Chicago (2010); Tate Britain, London (2005 and 2010); Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, Germany (2006); and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2005). In 2015, Ofili’s work was included in 

, the International Art Exhibition of the 56th Venice Biennale, curated by Okwui Enwezor; and Ofili represented Britain at the British Pavilion, 50th Venice Biennale (2003). In 2017, Ofili was a recipient of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), and in 1998, he was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize.

The artist’s works are represented in prominent institutional collections worldwide, including The British Museum, London; The Broad, Los Angeles; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Centre national des arts plastiques, Puteaux, France; The Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens; Dallas Museum of Art; Fortress House Museum, Gibraltar; Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Portrait Gallery, London; Pérez Art Museum Miami; Royal College of Art, London; Rubell Museum, Miami; Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection, Helsinki; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Tate, United Kingdom; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art, Cape Town.

Portrait of Chris Ofili, 2017. Photo by Carlos Arias

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is a geographer and writer whose books include 

Island People: The Caribbean and the World

(2016). Jelly-Schapiro is a regular contributor to 

, among many other publications. He teaches at NYU and serves as Director of Publishing at Pioneer Works.

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro

In 2017, Chris Ofili photographed chain-link fences throughout the island of Trinidad in order to explore notions of beauty, community, liberation, and constraint. This series of arresting images—“pocket photography,” as described by the artist—is the first body of photography ever published by Ofili. Through these entrancing black-and-white photographs, the artist engages with the diverse sources that inspired his critically acclaimed 

 exhibition at David Zwirner, New York in the fall of 2017.

Since moving to Trinidad in 2005, Ofili has continued to engage with the surrounding environment and culture, which has found its way into many of his colorful paintings. In these deceivingly simple black-and-white photographs, he captures a wide cross section of Trinidad as he highlights the encounter between natural and man-made settings, and the different aesthetic possibilities each brings out in the other. In focusing on a ubiquitous and seemingly unremarkable piece of equipment, Ofili is able to comment on our interactions with space and each other, using a near-universal subject as the fence slices the sky, melds into a tree, frames a basketball game, or reveals an opening.

In a new essay by the critically acclaimed author of 

 (2016), Joshua Jelly-Schapiro charts the history of chain-link fences; focusing on a selection of Ofili’s photographs, he then begins to explore what this imagery tells us about Trinidad in particular and the Caribbean as a whole. These two essays—one visual, the other literary—open onto a whole new set of interpretive possibilities for this groundbreaking artist.

Chris Ofili: Paradise Lost 

Chris Ofili: Paradise Lost  | Books

David Zwirner is an art gallery with locations in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Hong Kong. We present physical and online exhibitions, podcasts, books, and more.