The Visiting Artists Program resource guides contain upcoming speakers' biographies, articles, video and audio content, related publications in the Flaxman Library, and additional online resources. These guides may be used in the classroom in preparation for the event, research, or post-lecture discussion.
Olalekan Jeyifous: Tuesday, October 22, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. CT
The Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Hall, 111 S. Michigan Ave.
This event will be live captioned by Communication Access Realtime Translation services.
Join us in person for a lecture by artist Olalekan Jeyifous followed by an audience Q&A.
Olalekan Jeyifous is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work reimagines social spaces that examine the relationships between architecture, community, and the environment. He has exhibited at esteemed venues including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Vitra Design Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, where his artwork is featured in the permanent collection of the Department of Architecture and Design.
Olalekan was co-commissioned to design a monument for congresswoman Shirley Chisholm as part of the City of New York's "She Built NYC" initiative, and he has garnered numerous awards, including the notable Silver Lion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. Additionally, he is a recipient of the 2021 Fellowship from United States Artists, a Wilder Green Fellow at the MacDowell Colony, and has completed artist residencies at the Bellagio Center, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Drawing Center's Open Sessions program. He received a bachelor of architecture from Cornell University.
Photo credit: Matt Dutile
Olalekan Jeyifous' artistic practice depicts atemporal worlds brimming with Black joy
Mrinmayee Bhoot | stir | May 15, 2024
Utopian Practice, Political Power, and Community in Architecture: An Interview with Olalekan Jeyifous
Claire Brodka | arch daily | November 1, 2023
Course Correction: Reimagining Pan-Africanism
Derin Fadina | e-flux Architecture | August 2023
City Approves Design for Shirley Chisholm Monument in Prospect Park*
Zachary Small | The New York Times | July 17, 2023
*This is a library resource that requires ARTIC login
After MoMA, the Black Reconstruction Collective Plots Its Future
Diana Budds | New York Magazine | June 7, 2021
MoMA’s Reconstructions reaches toward another world
Jess Myers | The Architect’s Newspaper | May 20, 2021
Reconstructions Portrait: Olalekan Jeyifous On Architecture As Speculation
David Hartt | Pin-Up Magazine | Fall Winter 2020/21
Olalekan Jeyifous Is Imagining an Afrofuturist Brooklyn
Diana Budds | Curbed | July 1, 2020
Alexandria, Virginia’s Waterfront Park Adds Olalekan Jeyifous Installation ‘Wrought, Knit, Labors, Legacies’
Chadd Scott | Forbes | June 7, 2020
Between art and architecture
Sarah Wesseler | The Architectural League NY | April 21, 2020
Imagining Diasporic Retrofutures with Olalekan Jeyifous
The Institute of Black Imagination [Podcast] | April 14, 2024 | Please note this podcast does not provide transcripts
Olalekan Jeyifous on eco-fiction and world-building
Design Emergency [Podcast] | December 14, 2023 | Please note this podcast does not provide transcripts
Afrofuturism by
This timely and gorgeously illustrated companion book to an exciting Smithsonian exhibition explores the power of Afrofuturism to reclaim the past and reimagine Black futures Afrofuturism- A History of Black Futures explores the evolving and exhilarating concept of Afrofuturism, a lens used to imagine a more empowering future for the Black community through music, art, and speculative fiction. Sumptuous, beautifully designed spreads feature 100 gorgeous illustrations of objects and images that reflect Black identity, agency, creativity, and hope, including- T'Challa's suit from Black Panther, Octavia Butler's typewriter, Uhura's outfit from Star Trek, Sun Ra's space harp, costumes from Broadway's The Wiz, handwritten lyrics by Jimi Hendrix, and Janelle Monae's ArchAndroid dress. Chapters include essays from a diverse group of scholars who reflect on themes such as legacy, alienation, and activism, with profiles on influential people and objects- Foreword & Introduction- Provides background on Afrofuturism Chapter 1 - Space is the Place- Reflects on space and its defining connection to Afrofuturism and its African cultural legacy Chapter 2 - Speculative Worlds- Explores short stories, Black speculative fiction and sci-fi, comics, and Black superheroes as bastions of Afrofuturist expression Chapter 3 - Visualizing Afrofuturism- Analyzes the vast visual culture of Afrofuturism Chapter 4 - Musical Futures- Explores Afrofuturism and music Afterword Afrofuturism offers a framework of radical potential to envision Black liberation and alternatives to oppressive structures like white supremacy. Afrofuturism comes at a time of increasing visibility for the concept, both in scholarship and in pop culture, and is a compelling ode to the revolutionary power of Black imagination. CONTRIBUTORS- Reynaldo Anderson, Tiffany E. Barber, Herb Boyd, Ariana Curtis, Eve L. Ewing, Tuliza Fleming, Nona Hendryx, N. K. Jemisin, John Jennings, Steven Lewis, Mark Anthony Neal, Alondra Nelson, De Nichols, Elaine Nichols, William S. Pretzer, Vernon Reid, Matthew Shindell, Kevin M. Strait, Angela Tate, Michelle Wilkinson, Ytasha L. Womack, Alisha B. Wormsley, and Kevin Young
Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America by
During the Museum of Modern Art's 90-year history, African American architects and designers have had little to no purchase in its permanent collection and exhibition histories, reflective of larger trends in museum and architectural discourses at large. The exclusion of Black architects and designers from the academic imagination have largely been waylaid in favor of dominant formalist and stylistic concerns. This book, conceived as a field guide to accompany the exhibition at MoMA, examines how contemporary architecture may address the varied contexts of systemic anti-Black racism that have fostered violent histories of discrimination and injustice in the United States. The invited contributors reimagine the legacies of race-based dispossession in ten American cities and how individuals and communities across the United States have mobilized Black cultural spaces, forms, and practices as sites of imagination, liberation, resistance, and refusal. The catalogue will feature a portfolio of new photographs by artist David Hartt.
Hip-Hop Architecture by
"This book is not for you. It is not for architectural academic elites. It is not for those who have gentrified our neighborhoods, overly intellectualized the profession, and ignored all contemporary Black theory within the discipline. You have made architecture a symbol of exclusion, oppression, and domination rather than expression, aspiration, and inspiration. This book is not for conformists--Black, White, or other." As architecture grapples with its own racist legacy, Hip-Hop Architecture outlines a powerful new manifesto--the voice of the underrepresented, marginalized, and voiceless within the discipline. Exploring the production of spaces, buildings, and urban environments that embody the creative energies in hip-hop, it is a newly expanding design philosophy which sees architecture as a distinct part of hip-hop's cultural expression, and which uses hip-hop as a lens through which to provoke new architectural ideas.Examining the present and the future of Hip-Hop Architecture, the book also explores its historical antecedents and its theory, placing it in a wider context both within architecture and within Black and African American movements. Throughout, the work is illustrated with inspirational case studies of architectural projects and creative practices, and interspersed with interludes and interviews with key architects, designers, and academics in the field. This is a vital and provocative work that will appeal to architects, designers, students, theorists, and anyone interested in a fresh view of architecture, design, race and culture.Includes Foreword by Michael Eric Dyson.
Waste Matters: Adaptive Reuse for Productive Landscapes by 
The Book of Drawings + Sketches: Architecture by
"The Book of Drawings + Sketches" is dedicated on the individual handwriting of the most important and influential architects of our time. The hand-drawn vision highlights the main features and characteristics of a building, which is overshadowed by the seemingly perfectly realistic approach of a rendering. Despite the nearly unending possibilities of computer-based methods, drawings and sketches remain the most intuitive expression method of architects. Beyond the pure conveying of information through a mechanical drawing, the various techniques of manual drawing can convey individual sentiments and impressions. The result is a larger degree of authenticity coupled with an emphasis of the human dimension of architecture. The volume combines the most diverse drawing and painting methods, juxtaposing implemented sketches with selected photos of the final result, allowing readers to comprehend the connection between the intention and outcome themselves.
Common Destination: Selections Fall 2006 by
Common Destination: Selections Fall 2006 features twelve emerging artists selected from the Viewing Program. The artists in Common Destination explore the fictions, histories, and futures of geopolitics through an expansive approach to drawing. The accompanying publication features works by the selected artists: Bogdan Achimescu, Tomislav Ceranic, Vadim Fiskin, Ivan Grubanov, Olalekan Jeyifous, Yuri Leiderman, Heidi Neilson, Nusra Latif Qureshi, Stephen J. Shanabrook, Dario Solman, Sophie Tottie, and Jina Valentine. The volume also includes artist essays and an introduction by curator Katherine Carl.
Harlemworld: Metropolis as Metaphor by Graham Foundation: Olalekan Jeyifous
This exhibition presents the work of Olalekan Jeyifous, a visual artist and architect whose work explores visions of the future and alternate timelines as a critique of contemporary social structures.
MADE WITH LOVE: Olalekan Jeyifous
Olalekan Jeyifous’ artwork for the 8 Av station explores connections between culture, architecture, and food found in Brooklyn's diverse Sunset Park neighborhood. The artwork, "MADE WITH LOVE," is a series of 28 triptych compositions that combine architectural and urban elements of the neighborhood with culinary dishes known and loved by the local community and visitors.
Present Pastimes
The Ballston Putt-Putt operated for more than fifty years on Wilson Boulevard before the area’s high-rise development. Here, Jeyifous, a Nigerian-American artist whose work examines the relationships between architecture, community, and the environment has reimagined a cherished venue that alludes to leisure in a pre-digital, bygone era (Fall 2023).
Visiting Artists Program Lecture Recordings from the Archive
SAIC Visiting Artists Program video and audio lecture recordings (1977–present.) Available with SAIC login credentials.
SAIC Digital Collections: Visiting Artists Program
SAIC Visiting Artists Program publicity archive and audio recordings (1977–98).