“ I have a special relationship with the Moon. The Moon has been my guide in good and hard times, and an inspiration where roads of life seem blocked. Ona La – Road Open.”

“The Moon” highlights and captures Olabayo David Olaniyi’s unique personal relationship with the Moon.  “The Moon” (2007-present) is an exquisite sculptural object currently being created on the 10 acres grounds and studios of Bayo Park and Galleries as a union between the human artist and the material of the land. It is a dialogue of joy and sorrow painterly carved through the artist’s ups and downs relative to society in time, capturing the essence of life, as constant as the Moon relative to Earth and Sun. No object exists in the world of art like “The Moon.” 

  It is an exquisite sculptural object by Olaniyi currently being created on the 10 acres grounds and studios of Bayo Park and Galleries as a union between the human artist and the material on our acreage we live and work.

The female atop the Moon sculpture signifies the artist’s daughter, Aluna, whom he raised with the properties, characteristics, and spiritual energy of the Moon – LUNA.  The female figure carved out of walnut from the grounds of Bayo Park & Galleries is designed to be illuminated with DMX LED lights while rotating in time, having the emotions of Olaniyi’s daughter – light and dark

There was a storm at the time of the object’s inception. A living Maple tree fell on the grounds of Bayo Park & Galleries and then the Moon shined.  Olaniyi saw the shininess of the moonlight on the fallen log and rough-carved  the reflective lights and shadows the moonlight casted.  For many years, “The Moon” grew in form and thought, carved in moonlight to commemorate the artist’s connection with the Moon through good and bad times. It is this life experiential dance that grows the sculptural Moon in time relative to space.

The form of the work has changed throughout the course of its development based on emotion relative to time in space. Initially, the sculpture was rapidly formed, while the wood was still “green.”

Olaniyi let the white maple moon-piece season in time, allowing the natural expansion and contraction of the wood as the liquid departed from the wood fibers.  He waited as the piece matured and solidified, allowing the natural aging and hardening process to occur, likening it to the rotational healing and transformational process of human endeavors.

Olaniyi paints as he sculpts, and sculpts as he paints, enveloping the Moon object in colors, lines, shapes, balancing the form geometrically.  He enjoys the relationship between line and form or when a paint, a stroke of a mark, comes into 3d reality.  There is a constant dialogue between paintbrush and chisel in a rotary axis and dimension.  As a sculptor he is also a painter.  This dual process has grown “The Moon” to present relative to the object, human and environment. When the object says stop, he stops. “What you see is never what it is.” The finished sculpture will be digitally mechanized, standing at the same height as the artist, cloaked in the DNA objects of power created in due time relative to “The Moon.”

“The Moon” as a one-of-a-kind object, the only in its existence, is deserving of a worthy collector/collection. It is a work in progress; when finished it is a priceless, transformative work of art. It may be available in bronze/brass editions or precious metal like gold//silver/platinum.

“The Moon” is a must have for any collector.  It is a new approach to how art is birthed, out of the studio, but in harmony with nature and life experiences.  “The Moon” reflects Olaniyi’s philosophical idea,” Life is a Performance” he founded while an artist-in-resident at the University of Michigan in 2000-2001 which questions and redefines the existing notion of what art is and the power of art and objects thereof.  “The Moon” sparks and provokes artistic dialogue and transcends the traditional bounds of art today.  It is an art object with no boundaries.

If you are interested in acquiring this magnificent object or its editions for your collection, or for more information, please click the link below, and a representative from Bayo Park & Galleries will be in touch.