Chief Muraina Oyelami is a painter, printmaker and master drummer, and one of the best-known first-generation Oshogbo artists. He was born in Iragbiji in 1940. He drummed and acted in Duro Ladipo's theatre company and toured Europe with it in 1964 and 1965. That same year, 1964, he joined Georgina Beier's painting workshop at the Mbari Mbayo summer school, and later he attended printmaking workshops with Ru van Rossem. He also trained as a dundun and bata drummer and studied theatre design at the University of Ife. From 1976 to 1987 he taught traditional music and dance there. His paintings, mostly oils, have clear design, muted earthy colours and strong outlines. Early critics compared them with Klee, Modigliani and Rouault. His early abstract townscapes gave way in the 1980s to more figurative scenes of Yoruba village life, heads and portraits. He has also made mosaics, including for Obafemi Awolowo University and Wema Bank. He had his first exhibition in Edinburgh in 1967 and has since shown widely, including at Art Dubai in 2017. His works are in the Smithsonian, the Studio Museum in Harlem and the National Gallery of Modern Art in Lagos. In 2018 he founded the Abeni Visual and Performing Arts Institute in Iragbiji.
School or movement: Oshogbo School (Mbari Mbayo, first generation).
Influenced by Georgina Beier, Ulli Beier, Duro Ladipo theatre, Yoruba drumming and culture.
Influenced Students at Obafemi Awolowo University and the Abeni Visual and Performing Arts Institute, Iragbiji.
