Ademola Olugebefola member of National Conference of Artists

Ademola Olugebefola
Ademola's world is vast and varied. His lifelong interest in the performing arts music and dance is translated through a series of large ink and pastel drawings, which capture with a few calligraphic gestural lines the ethereal and fleeting quality of gracious movement. Music is rendered with the same dexterity and sensitivity. There his use of medium broadens (watercolors and mixed media) conveying his love of music and communicating the energy emanating from this sensorial art form.

"Emerging Spirit" mixed media and collage on paper, 1970-71. 24 x 18 inches.

In Emerging Spirit, Olugebefola juxtaposes the brilliant colorations of blue, red, black, and white, the basic Yoruba ceremonial colors, to create an evocative work depicting spiritual birth. The artist's experience in Weusi Ya Sanna provides him with a sound frame of reference for this work and the ritual symbolism of these colors adds another level of meaning to the image. The colors, flame like in their formation, acquire a deeper resonance in their close proximity. A kind of visual vibrancy is set up which emanates from the spiritual form upwards, beyond the edges of the paper.

"Sun Ra" 1994, mixed media on board 30"x40"

Published by Chronicle Books, 1997 on the occasion of an exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition service as part of America's Jazz Heritage. A partnership of the Lila Wallach Reader's Digest Fund and the Smithsonian Institution

"Music for Jitana" Hand Colored Woodcut Limited Edition 16" X 14"

Commissioned by Chase Manhattan Bank
1994 for Commemorative Harlem Week Poster

Ademola's website http://art-alive.com/ademola