Moyo Okediji

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Moyo Okediji, born in 1956 in Lagos, Nigeria, is a painter, art historian, and mixed-media artist known for using Yoruba symbols and proverbs in his work. His family comes from Oyo Town in Oyo State.

He studied painting at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and graduated in 1977, later earning a master's degree from the University of Benin. He returned to Ife as a lecturer. While in Benin, he was influenced by Doris Rodgers, a Guyanese painter who integrated African decorative elements into her art.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Okediji helped form the Ona movement at Obafemi Awolowo University, which connected Yoruba adages and visual concepts with modern Nigerian life. He edited the short-lived magazine Kurio Africana, and Ona held its first exhibition in March 1989 at the University of Ibadan.

Okediji earned a PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1995 and served as Curator of African and Oceanic Arts at the Denver Art Museum from 2003 to 2008. He is a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin. His work remains rooted in Yoruba culture and mixed-media exploration.

Website: moyookediji.com