Masud Ashley Olufani (MAO) is an Atlanta based actor, mixed media artist, and writer whose studio practice is rooted in the discipline of sculpture. He is a graduate of 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 nationally and internationally. He is a featured artist in the 2024 Dakar Biennale in Senegal. The artist has completed residencies at The Vermont Studio Center; The Hambidge Center for Arts and Sciences; and Creative Currents in Portobello, Panama. He is a 2020 South Arts Cross Sector Grant recipient for Elder, a site specific installation created to coincide with the redevelopment of the historic David T. Howard School in Atlanta. Masud is a 2018 Southern Arts Prize State Fellow; a recipient of a 2015 and 2018 Idea Capital Grant; a Southwest Airlines Art and Social Engagement grant; and a recipient of 2015-16’ MOCA GA Working Artist Project Grant.
Statement
My multidisciplinary practice explores the resonance of memory; the narrative traditions
of African and African American folklore; and methodologies of constructive resilience
implemented by marginalized communities to maintain cohesion and ensure survival. I work with
a disparate assortment of materials and studio methods to investigate how objects operate in both
the objective and subjective realities, and how history tethers those objects to individual and
collective memory. Thematically my work addresses issues such as social marginalization; racial
justice, and iterations of constructive resilience. 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. My work is often layered with
multiple references and meanings that avoid trite summations. A prevailing archetype in the
conceptual framework is that of the ‘trickster’, who exists at the crossroads; the meeting place
between opposing ideas. At this intersection of possibilities we are asked to choose, to interpret a
set of visual indicators which point towards a direction without being didactic. It is the elasticity of
the visual language; it’s ability to expand and contract--accommodating multiple meanings--that
compels and inspires me.
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