Ma of Alaba (series)

“What you see is not what I saw.”  Just like Picasso’s Guernica, art is created and functions purposefully in times of war and peace.  Ma of ALABA is a series of digital performances created at the time of the 2017 special election runoff in the State of Alabama, USA to address the national climate and political discourse, especially where “power” that was in power wanted to exercise a negative force – hate – of the past upon today.  Objects interacting with objects in space relative to time – the Ma of ALABA digital paintings are objects relating to “object stories” in the time of a heated political debate/election relative to history and the time we were living in 2017.  The colors of the Ma of ALABA series are based on American colors, “dumping” more blue into the seas purposely to transfer a red canvas state into a blue canvas state where the blue is more dominant.  America is never as balanced as the color of its red, white and blue design since it has its divisions relative to its history. These works of art are based on the science of relativity, how things relate to one another, and the effect of these relations if manipulated in a good way, yielding good results. If left to its own devices, then what one gets can be good and bad.  “It is the goodness of it, I seek and these artworks are the product of the interactive experience.”   Artistically, the transformation of a state, a space, a person can be made just like in paintings, or canvas prepping, where one color can become more dominant over the other.  In this case, it is the blue that was purposely rendered a power.  It is a magic of life – a natural phenomenon.  Spiritually, there is a degree of consciousness that art and creation brings from sacred reality into our physical realm, subject to interpretation, leading intellectual growth.  While the vision relates to a sacred aspect, it then manifests itself, not only on canvas, but also interprets itself in political ideology relative to time. The series utilizes artistry as a tool of social consciousness and change, empowering voices through art advocacy for those who doubted their own ability to manifest for themselves their own power relative to government and governance in the arena of political Alabama and the United States. 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Olabayo David Olaniyi combines his Western Art academic training with his traditional/contemporary Western African art upbringing and thought as a unique philosophically-imbued artist.  He creates art objects of power based on his philosophy “Life is a Performance” he birthed while an artist-in-resident at the University of Michigan from 2000-2001 based on his life and art experiences. He currently lives in balance of four realities – sacred, physical, old, and new – in the State of Iowa, USA and creates on his acreages of studios at Bayo Park & Galleries.

Olabayo first came to the United States in 1988 as a visiting artist.  Olabayo received his BFA from the College of Santa Fe in 1993 and his MA/MFA from the University of Iowa in 2002. He has been an artist-in-resident at the National Black Theatre in Harlem and at the University of Michigan.  He has exhibited, performed and conducted art workshops extensively across the nation, artfully transforming every community he encounters. His art objects are in many prestigious private and public collections, including President Obama, Larry Gagosian, the New Mexico Governor’s office, the Smithsonian Institute and the University of Iowa Museum of Art.

Olabayo David Olaniyi was born in 1970 in Oshogbo, Nigeria, a city renown worldwide for traditional and contemporary Yoruba arts and culture. His parents are two of Africa’s most prominent artists, Chief Prince Twin Seven Seven, the UNESCO 2005 “Artist for Peace,” and Chief Nike Davies Okundaye, renown 4th generation fiber-artist who currently owns and operates the largest art gallery in West Africa, Nike Art Centre located in Lagos, Nigeria. Growing up around a variety of traditionally-skilled artisans, craftspeople, and musicians, Olabayo absorbed and mastered a variety of artistic mediums including metal-smithing, woodcarving, beading, fiber art, weaving, masquerading, music, drumming and theater.

Olabayo’s Western art experience is vast – first, rooted in the Santa Fe Art scene, incorporating the colors/culture of New Mexico to industrial bronze casting of the Pajaro Valley, Watsonville, California.  Immersed in the cultural arts of Harlem, NY, Olabayo learned under the tutelage of the late, revered Dr. Barbara Ann Teer. Calmness and roughage of the US Virgin Island’s blue seas also shaped his presence in the United States.  He has driven across the United States as the first “self-employed black artist” awarded child custody in the State of Iowa, giving him a unique perspective of life and art, and utilizing his artistic talents as a transformative tool to make the world a greater place for his children and all children. Olabayo studies and emphasizes the role objects play in daily performances relative to time and space. His in-depth understanding and unrivaled mastery of material births museum-quality art objects and collectibles employing a dynamic set of talents applicable to all facets of life.