Beauty and the Beads: Divine Fire and Color in Transatlantic Beaded Art
Moyo Okediji
Thursday, February 6, 2025
- Sunday, April 27, 2025
Central Library - 710 W. César Chávez St.
Gallery (2nd Floor)
About the Exhibit
Exhibition Reception February 6, 5:30-8:00pm
Artist Presentation and Discussion: February 27, 6:00pm-7:30pm
This exhibition presents a transformational moment in the history of glass beads, arguably the most popular artistic medium in Africa. It details, with the use of expressive objects, videos and photographs, the process through which the indigenous traditions of beaded glassmaking transform from three-dimensional tubular shapes to flat geometric figural forms.
Beads are some of the most ancient art forms in Africa, as archaeological excavations indicate. Fabricated from several materials including stones, seeds, bones and metals, bead have also been given faience treatments as glass ornaments as far back as thousands of years in ancient Egyptian art. In this exhibition, the artists focus exclusively on glass beads fused with colorful glazes using indigenous firing techniques in wood-fueled kilns. The environmental footprints of this kiln are substantial, motivating the artists to develop and experiment with a more environmentally accommodating gas-fueled technology for glass smelting, adapted from their indigenous techniques. To further extend the creative potentials of the glass beaded technology, this project also adapted the indigenous mold to build flat shaped chromatic beads designed exclusively for pictorial compositions constructed as wall hangings.
About the Artist
Moyo Okediji is an art historian, artist, and curator. He studied fine arts at the University of Ife, before proceeding to the University of Benin, where he did an MFA in African Art Criticism, Poetry, and Painting. At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he received a PhD in African Arts and Diaspora Visual Cultures. He has apprenticed with several indigenous African artists working in both sacred and secular mediums including mat weaving, textile designs, terra cotta, shrine painting, and sculpture.
After teaching for several years in Nigeria, Okediji relocated to the United States in 1992. For ten years he was the curator of African and Oceanic arts at the Denver Art Museum. He has taught at various colleges in the United States, including Wellesley College, Gettysburg College, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of Colorado at Denver. He has also exhibited at various places including the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC,. the Corcoran Center, London, and the National Museum Gallery, Lagos Nigeria. He is the author of books and exhibition catalogues including African Renaissance, Old Forms, New Images in Yoruba Art; and The Shattered Gourd: Yoruba Forms in Twentieth Century American Art.
Image credit
Moyo Okediji