Profile

Chief Muraina Oyelami began his career in arts in 1964 as one of the original members and the first generation of the famous Osogbo Art School initiated by Professor Ulli Beier and his wife Mrs. Georgina Beier. He was also a founding member of the late Duro Ladipo Theatre Company as an actor and musician. He toured with the group to Berlin Festival of Art (Berliner Festwochen) in 1964 and the first Commonwealth Arts Festival in Britain in 1965. Artist in Residence and Fellow of The National Black Theatre in Harlem, New York in 1973, Chief Oyelami did Technical Theatre course at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (then University of Ife) with specialization in Theatre-Design where he also taught traditional music between 1975 and 1987.

A man of two worlds, he is known by many as a master visual artist while others know him as a great performing artist. Described as a poetic painter with romantic approach, his works grow out of specific experiences (portraits, stories, folktales, landscapes and recent happenings). He executed mosaic murals on Link Bridge of Faculty of Health Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University (O.A.U.) Ile-Ife in 1975 and on Wema Bank Plc. (Iragbiji Branch) in 1983. On February 14th, 1993, he was installed as Eesa of Iragbiji.