THE ARTIST

Today




In 2005




Polly Nordstrand (left) who is the assistant curator of American Indian Arts at the Denver Art Museum, and Moyo Okediji at a Denver Art Museum / Douglas Society event in September 2005


Moyo Okediji was born in Lagos Nigeria. Parents moved to Ile Ife when he was two. He had his primary education in Ile Ife, and went to Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, for his secondary school. he returned to Ife for his university education in 1973, and was awarded a B.A. with honors in Fine Arts in 1977, by the University of Ife. Hereceived his MFA from the University of Benin in 1982, and returned to the University of Ife, where he became a lecturer. He founded and led the Ona Artists in Ile Ife, where he taught classes in painting, drawing, ceramics and art history. He organized several internationalconferences and symposia, and edited proceedings from some of these events.

In 1992, he left Ife for the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to study for a Ph.D. in art history. He completed his Ph.D. in 1995, and has taught Wellesley College, Gettysburg College, and the Universityof Colorado, Denver, before joining the faculty of UT Austin.

In Denver, he was also the curator of African and Oceanic arts at the Denver Art Museum. He organized exhibitions of historic and contemporary African art, published essays on the collection, andcurated the Oceanic and African galleries in the new Daniel Libeskindbuilding of the Denver Art Museum.

Okediji has also exhibited his own work as an artist in severalmuseums and galleries in Africa, Europe, and North America. He haspublished books and essays, including

The Shattered Gourd: YorubaForms in 20th Century American Art, and African Renaissance: Oldimages, New Forms in Yoruba Art.

Moyo enjoys African food, especially amala and gbegiri. But he is slowly adapting to exotic diets too.

By Toyin Falola

at the
USAAFRICA Dialogue Googlegroup

Image from

http://www.randafricanart.com/Moyo_Okediji.html

The Douglas Society at the Denver At Museum:

http://www.douglassociety.org/