Reception & gallery talk: Monday, April 24th
4:00 – 5:00pm, followed by panel discussion next door in room 170
Panel Discussion: 5:00 – 6:15 Multicultural Futuring, with Bayo Akomolafe, Chris Cornelius, and Olalekan Jeyifous
This exhibit showcases a collection of "protorealist" speculative artwork by Olalekan Jeyifous that explores the intricate connections between the natural world and urban infrastructure, ephemera, and apparel. These visuals embody the ethos of a regenerative, eco-futurist rewilding, inspiring imaginative interventions that focus on repair, reclamation, and retrofitting at the level of neighborhood blocks, buildings, and even bodies.
Olalekan Jeyifous (b.1977) received a BArch from Cornell University and is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work re-imagines social spaces that examine the relationships between architecture, community, and the environment. He has exhibited at venues such as the Studio Museum in Harlem, the MoMA, the Vitra Design Museum and the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain. In addition to an extensive exhibition history; he has spent over a decade creating large-scale installations for a variety of public spaces and was recently co-commissioned to create a monument dedicated to congresswoman Shirley Chisholm as part of the City of New York’s “She Built NYC” initiative.
With support from the College of Humanities & Fine Arts and the Lois E. Toko Lecture Series
Olalekan has been a Wilder Green Fellow at the MacDowell Colony and has completed artist residencies with the Drawing Center’s Open Sessions program and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center. He has won numerous awards for his artistic practice and is the recipient of a Fellowship by the United States Artists.
DESIGN BUILDING GALLERY
University of Massachusetts
John W Olver Design Building #180
551 North Pleasant Street
Amherst MA
Hours: Monday – Friday 9AM to 4PM
Closed on school holidays