(b. 1940)
Muraina Oyelami was born in Iragbiji, Nigeria in 1940. Known as a master painter and as a great performing artist, he is one of the original products of the Oshogbo Art School. He studied at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife specializing in Theater Design, where he later taught traditional music from 1975 to 1987. Before his career in art, Oyelami was a founding member of the late Duro Ladipo Theatre Company performing as an actor and musician. Some of his works are in the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Staatlichen Kunsthalle, Berlin; National Gallery of Modern Art, Lagos, Nigeria; IWALEWA-Haus, University of Bayreuth, Germany; Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.; and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London among others. Selected recent exhibitions include Living Masters: The Works of Bruce Onobrakpeya, El Anatsui, Muraina Oyelami, Mydrim Gallery, Lagos (2007); Contemporary African Art from the Collection of William Jones, Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art, Newark NJ (2007); Mbari Institute, Washington DC USA (2001); A Concrete Vision: Oshogbo Art from the 1960s, National Museum of African Art Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (2001); Nimbus Gallery, Lagos Nigeria (1998); and Gallerie am Turm, Eltville-am-Rhein, Germany (1998).