Bolaji Campbell
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
1998-2001 Ph.D. Art History,
Dissertation "Yoruba Shrine Painting Traditions: Color, Cosmos, Process,
and Aesthetics"
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Henry J. Drewal, Evjue Bascom Professor.
1986-1989 M.F.A. Painting, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria
1981-1984 B.A Fine Arts, University of Ife, Ile Ife, Nigeria
DISTINCTION AND AWARDS
2001/02 Postdoctoral Fellow, Avery Research Center for African American
History and Culture, College of Charleston, SC
1998-2000 The Richard Horovitz Funds for Professional
Development, Institute of International Education, NY
1997-1998 Sylvan C. Coleman and Pamela Coleman Memorial Fund Fellow,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
1996-1997 Visiting Scholar/Artist in Residence, Department of Art, University
of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
1994 Listed in L'Art Africain
Cntemporain, "Guidebook to Contemporary African
Art", published in collaboration with Association Dialogue Entre les
Culture, Paris
1992 Listed in Nigerian Artists: A Who's Who and Bibliography, Smithsonian
Institution Press
1990 Listed in a Special Issue on "Design in Nigeria", DESIGN
JOURNAL, (Seoul), 26:70-92
1987-1989 Obafemi Awolowo
University Post Graduate Fellowship Award
PUBLICATIONS
Authored Books
2008 Painting for the Gods: Art and Aesthetics of Yoruba Religious Murals,
Edited Books
1993- Bolaji Campbell, et.al. Diversity of
Creativity in Nigeria, Department of Fine Arts, O.A.U, Ife, Nigeria, 408 pp
(editing, introductory essay and a chapter)
Contribution to Books
2012 “New Perspectives on
Contemporary Nigerian Painting” in Ezumeezu:
Essays on Nigerian Art and Architecture, a Festschrift in Honour
of Demas Nwoko.
(Eds.) Obiora Udechukwu
and Chika Okeke-Agulu Glassboro, NJ: Goldline & Jacobs Publishing, pp.55-64
2009 “Coloring the Orisa” in Surfaces: Color, Substances, and Ritual
Applications on African Sculpture (ed) Leonard Kahan, Donna Page and Pascal James Imperato,
Indiana University Press
2007 “Reinventing Identities in the New
World: Ori Olokun as Zumbi dos Palmares in Rio de
Janeiro”, in Afro-Brazilian Mind / A Mente Afro-Brasileira: Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Literary and
Cultural Criticism, (eds.) Niyi Afolabi,
Márcio Barbosa and Esmeralda Ribeiro,
Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press
2005 Catalogue Entries in Resonance
from the Past: African Sculpture from the
2004 Biographic Entries on
Contemporary Nigerian Artists, in The Grove
Dictionary of Art Online,
2004 "To Unravel the mysterious, the wonderful, and the
fearful..." in Convergence Exhibition catalogue,
2003 "Altars of Memory and of Identity: The Art of Sonya Clark", in (ed) Niyi Afolabi's Marvels of the African World: African Cultural Patrimony, New World Connections and Identities (Africa World Press) pp. 395-410
1993 Book Introduction: Diversity of Creativity in
1993 "Oshinowo's World of Drummers" in
Diversity of Creativity in Nigeria, Department of Fine Arts, O.A.U, Ife,
Nigeria, pp. 117-124
1992 "The Trial of Traditional Art: the Bird Symbolism in Contemporary
Yoruba Art" in Principles of Traditional African Art, (ed.) Moyo Okediji, Bard Books, Ibadan,
pp. 54-69
PUBLISHED ARTICLES
2008 “Of storytelling and the
slippery medium of clay: Babette Wainwright’s Image of the Woman at the Diasporic Crossroads” in African and Black Diaspora: an
International Journal (Routledge Taylor & Francis
Group,
2006 Book Review, The Pan-African Nation: Oil and the Spectacle of Culture in
2000 Book Review, "Olowo of Ise: A Yoruba Sculptor
to Kings" by Roslyn Adele Walker, in African Arts (spring) vol. xxxiii,
#1, pp 88-89
1999 "Yoruba Notions of Color: an introduction", Wisconsin African
Studies News and Notes, 51, winter 1999, Madison pp. 12-14
1996 "Ogboni Shrine Paintings in Ilesa" in The Nigerian Field, 61: 104-114
1995 "Images of Power in Sixteen Yoruba Shrine Paintings" in Ife:
Annals of the Institute of Cultural Studies, #6, O.A.U, Ife, pp. 25-31
1995 "Ise Loogun Ise: Theme of Labour in
Contemporary Nigerian Art, Kurio Africana, vol. 2, #
1, Department of Fine Arts, O.A.U, Ife, pp. 21-27
1995 "Report on Kevin Carroll Seminar", The Nigerian Field, 60 (1-2)
April, Ibadan pp.83
1995 Book Review, "Architectures of Nigeria" by Kevin Carroll in The
Nigerian Field, 60 (1-2) Ibadan
1993 "Transition in the Visual Image of the Woman in Contemporary Nigerian
Art", in The Eye, 2 (1) Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria, pp. 10-13
1989 "Colour Attitudes: A Critique of Seven
Nigerian Painters" in Kurio Africana, vol. 1, #2
Department of Fine Arts, O.A.U, Ife, pp. 42-51
1989 Book Review: A Review of Bruce Onobrakpeya's Sahelian Masquerade, in Kurio
Africana, vol. 1 #1, Department of Fine Arts, O.A.U, Ife
1989 "Continuity and Change in Yoruba Shrine Painting Tradition" in Kurio Africana, vol. 1 # 1, Department of Fine Arts, O.A.U,
Ife pp. 109-115
PUBLISHED CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
1994 "Introduction: The Dream Lingers on" in The Proceedings of
the 1994 Father Kevin Carroll Seminar, R.I. Ibigbami
and Bolaji Campbell (ed.) Department of Fine Arts,
O.A.U, Ife
1994 "Pagan Doors on Sacred Altars" in The Proceedings of the 1994
Father Kevin Carroll Seminar, R.I. Ibigbami and Bolaji Campbell (ed.) Department of Fine Arts, O.A.U, Ife
1991 "Patterns of Tradition in Contemporary Yoruba Paintings" in
ORITAMETA: Proceedings of the 1990 International Conference on Yoruba Art,
Dept. of Fine Arts, Ife, pp. 122-130
MEMBERSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL BODIES
College Art Association
Art Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA)
Society of Nigerian Artists
Nigerian Folklore Society
Ona Artists