Chief Muraina Oyelami: biography, age, family, net worth

‎All you need to know about Chief Muraina Oyelami popularly known as Muraina Oyelami Let’s take a look at his Biography, Nationality, Career, Age, Net worth, Family.

ABOUT
Chief Muraina Oyelami is a Nigerian painter and drummer of Yoruba descent with the theatre company of Duro Ladipo. As a musician, he trained in the dùndún (talking drum) and the Batá drum.

EARLY LIFE
Chief Muraina Oyelami was born on 21 February 1940 in Iragbiji, Osun State. He was among the first generation of artists to come out of the Osogbo School of Art in the 1960s. He was the chief of his hometown Iragbiji.

EDUCATION
Chief Muraina Oyelami Oyelami attended the University of Ife “Obafemi Awolowo University” in Ile-Ife, studying technical theatre with a specialisation in theatre design and received a certificate in dramatic arts.

In 1973 he traveled to the New York where he had a fellowship and residency at the National Black Theatre in Harlem. Oyelami taught traditional music and dance at Obafemi Awolowo University from 1976 to 1987. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

He was also commissioned to create mosaics for Obafemi Awolowo University. His first pair of mosaics, on the Faculty of Health Science building in Ile-Ife, were completed in 1975. He completed a mosaic mural on the Iragbiji campus at Wema Bank Plc. in 1983.

Chief Muraina Oyelami’s art work

CAREER
From 1963 to 1965, Oyelami undertook training in the dùndún (talking drum) from Oba Laoye, who was Timi of Ede. During the same time, he studied the Batá drum with Ayantunji Amoo of Okinni and Abeyefo of Iseyin. He was a drummer and actor with the Duro Ladipo National Theatre, the theatre company of Yoruba dramatist Duro Ladipo.  He toured Europe as a member of the troupe, first to Germany for the Berlin Festival of Art in 1964 and then to the United Kingdom for the Commonwealth Arts Festival in 1965.

In 1964 Oyelami attended the summer art school of the Mbari Mbayo Artists and Writers Club in Osogbo where he attended a painting workshop given by Georgina Beier. He began studying at the Osogbo Art School, founded by Georgina and Ulli Beier, and was among the first generation of Osogbo Art students; at the school he took printmaking and painting workshops in addition to working as a stage actor and master Yoruba drummer.

In his visual art, Oyelami drew inspiration from the works of Kenyan printmaker Hezbon Owiti. At his first exhibition in Edinburgh in 1967 his works were compared to those of Paul klee and Amedeo Modigliani, though he was unfamiliar with European art. He was later compared to Georges Rouault and attended the printmaking workshops of Ru Van Rossem in 1966 and 1972.

Oyelami plays both traditional and fusion music and was a featured artist on the German band Embryo’s 1985 album Embryo & Yoruba Dun Dun Orchester. He was the musical director for and composed the score to the 1998 Royal Exchange Theatre production of the Wole Soyinka play Death and the king’s Horseman.

FAMILY
Much about Chief Muraina Oyelami’s family is not known.

PERSONAL LIFE
Oyelami is chief of his village,[6] having been made Eesa of Iragbiji on 14 February 1993.

In 2018, Oyelami founded the Abeni Visual and Performing Art Institute in Iragbiji. He serves as artistic director of the school. The institute trains students in visual and performing arts, including drum making, textile design and printmaking.

ACHIEVEMENT/PUBLICATIONS
Oyelami has written books on drumming and Yoruba culture. The 1993 monograph Abefe: An Autobiography of Muraina Oyelami was based on interviews of Oyelami, edited by Ulli Beier. In the text, Oyelami describes his youth, theatre in Ile-Ife, the Mbari-Mbayo workshop, and his residencies at Iwalewa-Haus.

— Oyelami, Muraina (1982). My Life in the Duro Lapido Theatre. [Bayreuth]: Iwalewa-Haus.

— Oyelami, Muraina (1989). Yoruba Dundun Music: A New Notation with Basic Exercises & Five Yoruba Drum Repertoires. Iwalewa.

— Oyelami, Muraina (1993). Ulli Beier (ed.). Abefe: An Autobiography of Muraina Oyelami. Bayreuth: Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth.

NET WORTH
Chief Muraina Oyelami has achieved a lot through is career but much of his Net worth has not been confirmed online.