January 2024
https://shadepodcast.substack.com/p/playgrounds-of-liberation?r=dakiq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
December 2022
“In my practice, I like to think about how to represent the labour of motherhood and women.”
– Temitayo Ogunbiyi, ocula.com
Read the full article here: https://ocula.com/magazine/conversations/njideka-akunyili-crosby-distinct-cosmopolitanism/
November 2021
“Play is something that we should continue to do throughout our lives,” says Ogunbiyi, a recent Ford Foundation Fellow and Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow. “How can you expand your thinking if you don’t try approaching the world in new ways?”
– Temitayo Ogunbiyi, paw.princeton.edu
Read the full article here: https://paw.princeton.edu/article/temitayo-ogunbiyi-06-invites-us-play
October 2020
“There were days when I had a headache over the title. I needed a title that described how I was feeling at the time, spoke to the piece specifically, and pushed beyond or cast open a literal description, while also directly addressing the ethos behind the work and encouraging people to move, progress, and embrace the freedom in their midst”.
– Temitayo Ogunbiyi, contemporaryand.com
Read the full article here: https://contemporaryand.com/magazines/a-playground-for-social-justice/
August 2020
“Temitayo Ogunbiyi has clear memories of the neon fillings of the apology chocolates a 7-year-old girl gave to her after calling her a nigger on the school bus. She has clear memories of another girl who refused to touch her because she was afraid it would turn her black. She was raised in suburban Philadelphia”.
– Brienne Walsh, forbes.com
Read the full article here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/briennewalsh/2020/08/19/in-naples-temitayo-ogunbiyi-creates-a-playground-where-children-can-play-freely/#4f079f9123e7
July 2020
“Commissioned by The Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee the playground installation work is an interactive set of sculptures, inspired by plant tendrils, hairstyling techniques and the itinerary traced by Google Maps between Lagos and Naples. Ogunbiyi’s installation transforms the museum’s inner courtyard into a play area and a garden, for children and adults to explore.”
– Editorial, thesoleadventurer.com
Read the full article here: thesoleadventurer.com/exhibition-photos-temitayo-ogunbiyis-you-will-play-in-the-everyday-running-at-madre-museum-naples/
July 2020
“Her earlier works had been conceived to get families to mingle with other families. But this current work, which was opened for public use on Wednesday, July 8, factors in the current realities and is designed to make families play in isolation even while sharing the same play space with other families.”
– Okechukwu Uwaezuoke, thisdaylive.com
Read the full article here: https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2020/07/19/temitayo-ogunbiyi-and-her-playful-visions-for-naples/
July 2020
July 2020
“For Temitayo Ogunbiyi, a mixed-media artist living in Lagos, Nigeria, the lockdown was a period of reflection and care for her family. She spent a lot of the time reading preschool level assignments for her children, while thinking about holistic education for them that could include emotional development, compassion, generosity and care for our environment.”
– Roli O’tsemaye, thesoleadventurer.com
Read the full article here: thesoleadventurer.com/on-the-emergence-of-a-new-normal-african-artists-share-their-experiences-during-covid-19-by-roli-otsemaye/
January 2020
“Capillarité, Temitayo Ogunbiyi’s first solo exhibition in Paris at 31 Project, engages the mixture of unexpected forms realised from fusions of elements of Nigerian hairstyles with geometric lines and botanical elements inspired by natural history. It alludes to a plural culture and the artist’s diasporic heritage”.
– Editorial, thesoleadventurer.com
Read full article here: https://thesoleadventurer.com/photos-of-temitayo-ogunbiyis-capillarite-exhibition-at-31-project-in-paris/
December 2019
“Using the aesthetics of naturalist drawing from the 18th and 19th centuries, Temitayo Ogunbiyi refers to the colonial classification system of the living world and thereby questions its plural culture and its diasporic heritage. With an intimate drawing mixing ethnological and botanical references, the artist tries to make her way in a fragile balance between her personal history and the movements of History in the broad sense”.
– Editorial, contemporaryand.com
Read the full article here: www.contemporaryand.com/exhibition/temitayo-ogunbiyi-capillarite/
November 2019
“One of the most poignant works is by Nigerian artist Temitayo Ogunbiyi—You Will Find Playgrounds Among the Palm Trees (2018–19) is a series of interactive sculptures placed on the roof and made from a variety of large-scale anamorphous-shaped sculptures in cast bronze and galvanized steel piping wrapped in twine that relay the need to create platforms for play using techniques found in threading hairstyles”.
– Rebecca Ann Proctor, artnet.com
Read the full article here: https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/the-second-lagos-biennial-1699158
February 2019
“The artist Temitayo Ogunbiyi is collecting flora from the lagoon to use in environmental pieces. She is designing playgrounds, with equipment inspired by the shapes of elaborate Yoruba hairstyles to remedy the lack of public leisure spaces.”
– Siddhartha Mitter, The New York Times
Read the full article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/arts/design/lagos-nigeria-art-x-art.html
June 2018
“…Lagos-based Temitayo Ogunbiyi, who is transforming former land fill sites in the Nigerian city into childrens’ play parks…”
– Emma O’Kelly, wallpaper.com
Read the full article here: https://www.wallpaper.com/art/yinka-shonibare-talisman-stephen-friedman-london
November 2017
“… I’m saving my money to purchase this for my bedroom, so I can wake up and look at this every day.”
– Matthew Henson, gq.com
Read the full article here: https://www.gq.com/gallery/matthew-henson-stylist-shopping-list
May 2017
“Temitayo Ogunbiyi, a U.S.-born artist who moved back to Lagos several years ago and produces drawings, collage, and installations with a conceptual bent.”
– Siddhartha Mitter, villagevoice.com
Read the full article here: https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/05/02/the-154-fair-surveys-the-multicultural-and-multifaceted-state-of-contemporary-art-in-africa/
February 2013
“While some of these contemporary tools and constructs may be helpful – love, when expressed through them, can seem a bit too fast (or slow), terribly watered down, or like an artificial sweetener – sugary with a funny after taste.”
– Temitayo Ogunbiyi, The Houston Chronicle
Read the full article here: https://www.chron.com/entertainment/article/Artists-redefining-love-in-romantic-relationships-4264123.php
November 2012
“Her installation “Lovely Love Text Message Books” (2012) consists of booklets to be dispensed from a vending machine, inspired by items sold in Nigerian marketplaces. “She was very interested in this question of how technology affects our ability to express love.”
– Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post. Dispatch
Read the full article here: https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/kristina-van-dyke-makes-progress-at-the-pulitzer/article_f20282d9-51ad-5c3b-b55f-9a5d18853560.html