Tall Bird

“A Fish that Carries the World” is a series of fine arts prints based on a pen and ink mixed media work of art designed as an entertaining and proverbial storytelling for a young California girl in 1996.  The story revolves around a particular fish that everybody wants to catch.  This one fish in the ocean is everything.  Now one can catch a whale, only getting the meat, skin, and oil, but this fish, as small as it is, has the whole of humanity locked in it.  The digital images in this series are derived from the illustration of various aspects of human life, Earth, seas, skies, sun and the moon that this fish sea creature carries as elements.  If you have this fish, you have the world.  All fishermen always try to catch it.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Olabayo David Olaniyi is an academically and philosophically-imbued artist with one foot in traditional arts and the other in Western know-how. He creates art objects of power based on his unique philosophy “Life is a Performance.” He currently lives and works in the United States of America, bridging four realities – sacred, physical, old, and new – in an artform unique to him. He has a vast skillset of talents, including architectural, interior, and stage design, visual and performance art. His artful thought process makes him a valuable asset to any field or project he embarks on and any community he encounters.

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, where he developed the artistic philosophy, “Life is a Performance.” He has exhibited, performed and conducted art workshops across the nation, artfully transforming every community he encounters. His art objects are in many prestigious private and public collections, including 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 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 mediums including woodcarving, beading, fiber art, weaving, drumming and theatre.

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 ranging from metalsmithing, wood/stone carving, painting, bead mosaics and digital art fused with today’s technology.