An award-winning Christian artist and storyteller from Nigeria will make a presentation today to the Piney River Art League on Monday in Houston.
Ibiyinki Alao, 40, is a Nigerian American artist who attended Nigerian Navy Secondary School in Navy Town, Lagos, from 1988-1993. He received his education as an architect at Obafemi Awolowo University from 1994-2000.
In 2001, he was named as Nigeria’s “Ambassador of Art.” He won a United Nations art contest involving participants from 61 countries. On May 18, “Ibi’s Fireflies,” a story book based on one of his paintings, “Eternity in our Hearts,” won the grand prize of the 2016-’17 Scholastic “Kids are Authors” contest. The project was submitted by a Pennsylvania school and was among 900 entries.
His artworks have been featured at several famous venues, including the Smithsonian, the World Bank headquarters, the United Nations, the Harvard Business School and the Empire State Building.
His office is at the United Nations. He is the ambassador from Nigeria. He spent last week at the Missouri Scholars Academy at MU. He brought some of his more than 300 paintings.
The art league program starts at 9 a.m. Monday (today). The public is invited to each.