artist biography
A multi-award-winning Sunday Olaniyi (Nigerian born 1988) is a contemporary visual artist, Designer and Art instructor residing in the United States. known for using glass beads to create portraiture and abstract storytelling in a uniquely African way. In his art, Olaniyi investigates the relationship between space, color, and texture in realism forms as well as semi-abstracted human and animal forms.
He received a certificate in Painting and Decorating from Government Technical College Iwo and studied Fine and Applied Arts at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Sunday Olaniyi has participated in several group and solo exhibitions.
Sunday Olaniyi won the 2023 Bead Arts Awards grand prize in the United States. In 2015, he participated in the “Life in My City Art Festival”. Olaniyi was awarded the Best Entry prize from his Zone. He also received the Visionary Excellent Award from the Interdependence Hexagon Project, Pennsylvania, USA.
He has been teaching and initiating several artistic workshops within communities, elementary, and high schools, across the globe. He collaborated with Willow Creek Middle School’s art department in Rochester, Minnesota USA. James Clemens High School Madison, Alabama USA. In 2016 he was invited to give lectures on African art and culture at the University Campinas in Sao Paulo, Brazil.