Today we’d like to introduce you to Masud Olufani.
Masud (MAO) is an Atlanta based actor and mixed media artist whose studio practice is rooted in the discipline of sculpture. He is a graduate of Arts High School in Newark, N.J., Morehouse College and The Savannah College of Art and Design where he earned an M.F.A. in sculpture in 2013. Masud has exhibited his work in group and solo shows in Atlanta, Georgia; New Orleans; Louisiana; Chicago, Illinois; Richmond, Virginia; Lacoste, France; and Hong Kong, China. The artist has completed residencies at The Vermont Studio Center; SCAD Alumni Artist in Residence in Savannah; The Hambidge Center for Arts and Sciences in Rabun, GA.; and Creative Currents in Portobello, Panama. He is a 2017 Southern Arts Prize State Fellow for Georgia; a recipient of a 2018 and 2015 Idea Capital Grant; a Southwest Airlines Art and Social Engagement grant; a recipient of 2015-16’ MOCA GA Working Artist Project Grant, and is a member of the 2014-15’ class of the Walthall Fellows. He is the lead designer of Blocked at Five Points, a site-specific installation created to memorialize the enslaved Africans bought and sold at the Crawford Frazier Auction House, which once stood on the grounds of Atlanta’s Five Points MARTA station. He has a reoccurring role on the new BET series The Quad and has appeared in numerous television shows including Being Mary Jane, Devious Maids, Satisfaction, and, Nashville. He is a featured actor in the film biopic All Eyez on Me: The Tupac Shakur Story.
Please tell us about your art.
My objects aspire to be visual poems—works of art that reach beyond themselves to reveal something meaningful about the human experience. I attempt to create work which blends formal elegance, emotional integrity, and spiritual resonance. At the core of my creative impulse lies a principal which is diametrically opposed to the cynicism and doubt that seems to shape and define the zeitgeist—hope. I still believe in the trans-formative potential of art; that in spite of the undertow of our overtly materialistic society the power of artistic expression rests in its ability to lift the spirit and inspire new ways of seeing. It is this faith in the inherent potentialities latent within the vision of the artist that compels me to create.
My studio practice reflects a profound interest in material relationships charged with sociological, and psychological implications. I’m interested in how objects operate in both the objective and subjective realities and how cultural memory tethers those objects to individual and collective history. Thematically my work addresses issues such as social destabilization; economic stratification; racial justice, and the soul’s aspiration for transcendence. My devotion to craft and the slow methodical realization of an idea in visual form reflects my belief in the maker’s ability to imbue the object with spirit through physical labor, fueled by vision and creativity.
Finally, I am a Baha’i and consistent with the teachings of my Faith my work is created in a spirit of service and a desire to do my part in carrying forward an ever advancing civilization.
Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
There are three essential elements for fostering expansive opportunities: show up on time; be prepared; and treat everyone with sincere kindness and respect.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
masud-olufani.squarespace.com
Contact Info:
- Website: masud-olufani.squarespace.com
- Email: masud6919@gmail.com
Image Credit:
All images courtesy of Masud Olufani
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