yétúndé ọlágbajú
i love the ghost in your eye, 2023
Bronze armature, cyanotype on cotton, beading, pearl, and ochre
yétúndé ọlágbajú utilizes video, sculpture, photography, and performance as through-lines for inquiries regarding Black labor, legacy, memory, and processes of healing.
Working with natural elements, i love the ghost in your eye is an offering to all the dreams, visions, and futures we’ve prayed on, lit candles for, worked at, and left at the altar. Working with pieces from their own altar, one that has followed them through ten Bay Area homes over the course of ten years, ọlágbajú casts personal heirlooms in bronze and uses ochre pigment to color quilted cyanotype prints. i love the ghost in your eye weaves together an offering to the systems of spirit that lovingly hold us up through transition and change. ọlágbajú received their MFA from Mills College in Oakland. In 2022, ọlágbajú moved their practice and their home to Los Angeles.
Photos courtesy of Henrik Kam.
ARTIST BIO
yétúndé ọlágbajú (they/them) is an artist, educator, and creative strategist based in Los Angeles, CA. They utilize video, sculpture, photography, and performance as through-lines for inquiries regarding Black labor, legacy, memory, and processes of healing.
They have exhibited work and develop projects with the Oakland Museum of California [Oakland, CA], Museum of the African Diaspora [San Francisco, CA], the Contemporary Jewish Museum [San Francisco, CA], MARS Gallery [Windsor, Australia], SOMArts Cultural Center [San Francisco, CA], Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive [Berkeley, CA], and Museum of Sonoma County [Sonoma, CA].
They hold an MFA from Mills College and are the recipient of multiple awards including the Svane Foundation award and a Headlands Center for the Arts Fellowship. They were a recent award finalist with ART X Prize, organized by ART X Lagos and is a member of multiple Black and Brown liberation focused artist/ worker-led collectives. They will be a resident at Center for Afrofuturist Studies [Iowa City, IA] & AADK Spain [Murcia, Spain] in 2023.
