Dorian Gray Shonibare's photographic suite Dorian Gray refers to Oscar Wilde's literary creation of the same name. A consummate dandy of the Victorian age, Wilde completed his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, in 1891. It tells the story of a handsome young man who forfeits his soul in order to remain forever young, while a hidden portrait captures the effects of his age and increasing moral corruption. In 1945, Wilde's Dorian Gray became a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film; that predominantly black-and-white film adaptation fuels Shonibare's photographs as much as the original novel. In choosing to make all but one of his photographs black and white, the artist emulates the format of the film still and underscores the theme of duality within his art. Another duality or inversion is evident in Shonibare's performance as Gray, originally a 19th-century white Englishman. In a pivotal moment in the film, the ever-youthful protagonist stands before his wizened, corrupted portrait, which we briefly see in vivid Technicolor, emphasizing the shocking transformation. Shonibare's solitary color photograph shows the artist as Dorian Gray encountering a similarly disfigured reflection in a gilded mirror.