Onajide Shabaka – multi media works, performative actions, photo

(Event sold out)

“Sus estrellas, como perlas, se han convertido en su herencia envuelta en blancos paños ungidos (para Silo Crespo)”
acrylic, colored pencil, solvent transfer, watercolor, collage on paper
53.5 x 44.5 in. / 135.9 x 113 cm
© 2022 (detail)

“Study J”
exhibited at Prizm Art Fair 2022 (Miami)

“He bathed in the river’s floral scent”
archival ink photographic print
(edition of 5)
13.25 x 20 in. / 33.65 x 50.8 cm
@ 2020

“ON THE EDGE OF TOMORROWS…”
at EMERSON DORSCH GALLERY
MIAMI, FLORIDA

In Alosúgbe: a journey across time, Onajide Shabaka’s debut exhibition at Emerson Dorsch, Shabaka explores biology and ethnobotany in the form of recent photography, works on paper and sculpture. These media serve as material for understanding the migrations of both humans and plants during the Atlantic colonial slave era to the present. This exhibition derives from several years of ongoing research finding connections between colonial sites in the Low Country (Georgia and South Carolina), the Caribbean archipelago and Suriname.

Magnolia Forist May 27 1847

WaveMaker Grants

Written by Locust Projects and Onajide Shabaka
Interview with the Artist

Tell us about your WaveMaker project: My project, “Alosúgbe,” really began in earnest while I was in Suriname with Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator’s International Cultural Exchange program and returned to do a one month residency there in 2017. I applied for a Wavemaker Grant to assist with investigating the colonial rice cultivation area along the Georgia tidewater for comparative data. I was awarded my grant in two parts, one part for research and one part for implementation. [read full interview]

Click image above to read about the exhibition.

Onajide Shabaka is a South Florida-based artist whose “studio” occupies a metaphorical space of a walk or a hike within the built urban environment. His walking practice takes him by many unkempt edges and along undeveloped or disused lots, habitats that are often overlooked or considered “weed”-infested or “vacant.” His work comprises drawings, watercolors, photographs, video and installation as it weaves plants, people, and history in a poetic, rather than a documentary, manner.

Research Residency Suriname 2017

Catalogs finally printed. So happy to share! They should be distributed to artists and to the public shortly. @universitygalleries_fau #dirt #curator #art

DIRT: Yuta Suelo Udongo Té – at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida

Dirt Yuta Suelo Udongo Té curated by Onajide Shabaka (first iteration)

Nierika – solo exhibition

NOW AVAILABLE: ONAJIDE SHABAKA LYRICAL WITNESS

onajide shabaka lyrical witness book cover