University News
Nigerian Artist to Speak at WIU April 4
March 30, 2007
MACOMB, IL - - Ibiyinka Olufemi Alao (eeh-bah-yinka o-lou-femi allow), an art ambassador for Nigeria, will discuss his body of artworks collected in "Visions of True Colours" (www.ibiyinka.com) at 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 4 in Morgan Hall 101B on the Western Illinois University-Macomb campus. The presentation is open free to the public.
Alao recently was named the first place winner (among 61 countries entered) of the United Nations International Art Competition.
He trained as an architect at the University of Ile-Ife, Nigeria, but Alao has spent 21 years expressing a peaceful view of the integration of cultures in the world through his use of color.
His paintings are currently on tour in the United States. They have been exhibited at the Harvard Business School, the Indianapolis Art Center, the Martin Luther King Art Center, the African Unity Festival, the Nigerian Consulate, the Nigerian Embassy, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Cultures, the United Nations headquarters, the World Bank headquarters and the Empire State Building.
Alao's presentation is the first in Western's Indigenous Africa and Diaspora Discourse Project (IADDP) Spring 2007 Lecture Series, sponsored by the African American Studies department. Co-sponsors include the Center for International Studies, Visiting Lecture's Committee and the Council on Student Activities.
The objective of IADDP is to explore African and African Diaspora cultural materials to broaden the curricula in humanities, social sciences and beyond. Scholars, writers, African and African Diaspora cultural experts, theorists and consultants from WIU and communities around the world -- especially from West African and Caribbean countries -- visit Western for lectures, dialogues and presentations.
For more information, visit www.wiu.edu/iaddp or contact Abdul Rasheed Na'Allah, chair of African American Studies, at 309/298-1181.
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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