Adebunmi Gbadebo

My work began out of a rejection of traditional art materials because of their association with Whiteness. Art history teaches us that the masters, the best to have ever used paint or those worthy enough to be painted, were white men. Not only did I reject that narrative and its materials, but I also went on to find a material and a history in which to root my own work that positions the people who looked like me as central to my practice.

My material is human hair from people of the African Diaspora. Our hair is so connected to our culture, politics, and history! It is history and DNA. The process of working with hair has allowed me to utilize my community as an integral part of my studio practice. Local barbershops and people’s homes have become my art store. My community helps me create every artwork! Strangers trust me to give a new purpose to their hair. Thus, with honor, the first piece I made was Dada. Twenty feet of locks sprawled up a wall, literally and metaphorically, forces the viewer to look up to black hair. I have sewn hair to canvas and I hand sew most of my work. The needle replaces my brush and instantly, the process became more involved allowing me to pierce through surfaces to insert “nappy” hair. The needle also slows the process and reflects that of a hairdresser or a mother working on her child’s head that rests in between her thighs. I am looking for ways to integrate genealogies of the diaspora with critical discourse through my use of hair!

Expo Chicago, Stand 107

April 7, 2022 to April 10, 2022

Navy Pier, Chicago IL

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Claire Oliver Gallery is thrilled to announce our return to Chicago for a long-overdue in-person celebration of art. At this inception of EXPO CHICAGO, the Gallery will bring major new works by artists Gio Swaby, Robert Peterson, Adebunmi Gbadebo, and Stan Squirewell. These artists whose practices vary but share a commonality in their desire to reframe the often-politicized Black body.

In addition to these powerful voices the Gallery will present a special exhibition, "The Lost Negatives," the works of photographer Jeffery Henson Scales. Historically significant, culturally cool, and artistically framed, the works transcend the view into the artist's unique vantage point to history. The exhibition features photographs from the 1960s including Henson Scales’ earliest forays as a photographer during the electrifying summer of 1967 when, at age 13, he toured the Midwest to see relatives in Chicago. As a Black teenager, he saw the poverty and oppression of Northern Black communities and when he returned to Oakland, CA became immersed in photographing the milieu of the Black Panther movement in Northern California. These images chart the emergence of his awakening as a documentary photographer as well as a Black man in a pivotal moment in the 20th century that echoes today’s Black Lives Matter movement.

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Four Now; Leonardo Benzant, Barbara Earl Thomas, Adebunmi Gbadebo & Gio Swaby

December 1, 2020 to January 23, 2021

Claire Oliver Gallery

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Four Now Is A Presentation of The Gallery’s Booth at Untitled Art Fair,
Telegraphing the Excitement of Miami Art Week To Claire Oliver’s Harlem Headquarters
With A Dynamic Program of Virtual Talks

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Adebumni Gabadebo: A Dilemma of Inheritance

September 17, 2020 to November 14, 2020

Claire Oliver Gallery

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Claire Oliver Gallery is pleased to announce the debut solo exhibition by artist Adebunmi Gbadebo, A Dilemma of Inheritance. The exhibition will showcase the artist’s True Blue series which is comprised of more than 45 works that grapple with concepts surrounding heredity and the evolution of memory and forgetting focused on two former slave plantations in South Carolina, both named True Blue. Gbadebo’s conception behind the exhibition and its naming was sparked by author Ta-Nehisi Coates’ exploration of patrimony and the inheritance of status in his case for reparations, stating “We recognize our lineage as a generational trust, as inheritance, and the real dilemma posed by reparations is just that: a dilemma of inheritance. It is impossible to imagine America without the inheritance of slavery.” Within this inquiry, materiality is central to Gbadebo’s work, she employs Black hair, rice paper, cotton and indigo to create works that are visceral portraits of human narratives that have been erased by history.

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UNTITLED, ART Miami Beach 2019

December 4, 2019 to December 8, 2019

UNTITLED, ART Miami Beach

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UNTITLED, ART is an international, curated art fair founded in 2012 that focuses on curatorial balance and integrity across all disciplines of contemporary art. Untitled, Art innovates the standard fair model by selecting a curatorial team to identify, and curate a selection of galleries, artist-run exhibition spaces, and non-profit institutions and organizations, in dialogue with an architecturally designed venue. The next edition of Untitled, Art Miami Beach will take place on the beach at Ocean Drive and 12th Street, December 4 — 8, 2019.

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1-54 Contemporary, London 2019

October 3, 2019 to October 6, 2019

Somerset House, London

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Rivers are their own separate systems but are still connected to one body of water, the sea. I feel like this is a metaphor for various diasporic communities around the world that are still connected or have roots in Africa.

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Public Collections:

National Museum for African American History and Culture
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C.
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota
Newark Art Museum, Newark, NJ
Minnesota Museum of American Art, Minneapolis MN
Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis MN
South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC

Selected Solo Exhibitions:

The Dilemma with Inheritance, Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, NY – 2020
Uprooted, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ – 2020
Connected by a Strand, Therese A Maloney Gallery, College of Saint Elizabeth,
Morristown, NJ – 2019
The Ade Series, Paul Robeson Gallery, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ – 2016

Selected Group Exhibitions:

FOR NOW, Claire Oliver Gallery, Harlem NY
Dhaka Art Summit, Seismic Movements, Dhaka Bangladesh 2020
UNTITLED, ART Miami Beach, FL 2020
Mapping Black Identities, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN 2020
Abstraction in the Black Diaspora, False Flags, Queens NY 2020
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London UK 2019
UNTITLED, ART Miami Beach, FL 2019
Between Wisdom & Madness: Works in Sculpture, Index Art Center Newark,
NJ, 2019
Nice/Nasty, Newark Arts Festival, Newark, NJ, 2018
Compassion, Morris Arts/ Dodge Foundation, Morris, NJ, 2018
Same Difference, Miranda Kuo Gallery, New York, NY, 2018
Intertwined, Chashama Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2017
She Speaks, Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ, 2017
Women in the World, Monmouth University, 2017
Say Her Name, Newark Open Doors, Newark, NJ, 2016
BlackLivesMatter, Kean University, Union, NJ, 2016
SVA Open Studio, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, 2016
Surrogate, SVA Chelsea Gallery, New York, NY, 2016
Cross-Cultural Dialogue, curator Central Academy of Fine Arts China, Jacob Javits Center, New York, NJ, 2016
5on5, SVA Open Studio, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, 2015
SVA Open Studio, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, 2015
Newark Open Doors, Yendor Arts, Newark, NJ, 2015
Hi-Rez/ Lo Rez, SVA Flatiron Gallery, School of Visual Arts, New York, NJ, 2105
Stigmata, Yendor Arts, Newark Open Doors, Newark, NJ, 2013

Awards/Grants:

Vermont Studio Center Artist’s Grant, 2018
Honorarium, Mother & Muse Talk, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ, 2017
BFA Fine Arts (Honors), 2016
Honorarium, Paul Robeson Gallery, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, 2016
SVA Merit Scholarship, School of Visual Arts, New York, NJ, 2013
SVA Chairman’s Scholarship, School of Visual Arts, New York, N, 2013
SVA Grant, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, 2013

Residency/Public Commission/Fellowship:

Clay Studio Residency, Philadelphia, PA
Research and Community Outreach Assistant For the City Of Harriet Tubman Public Monument and Park, Newark NJ
Clay Studio, Philadelphia PA 2020
Wood carving fellowship, Polytechnic University, Ibadan, Nigeria, 2019
Vermont Studio Center Residency, Johnson, Vermont, 2018
Classical Painting Fellowship, Mario Camano Studio, Madrid, Spain, 2016
Gateways to Newark Mural, Newark Downtown District, Newark, NJ, 2016
SVA Bronze Casting, Keating Foundry, Jersey City, NJ, 2016

Talks/Workshops:

Artists in the Studio, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco CA 2020
Art and Lunch, Newark Museum of Art, Newark NJ 2020
Artist Talk, Spence School, New York NY 2020
Artist in Conversation, College of Saint Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ, 2019
“Crown your Head,” workshop, Newark Museum, Newark NJ, 2018
Mother and Muse talk, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ, 2017
Ade Series talk, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, 2016

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2021 Distinguished Artist Series

Claire Oliver of Claire Oliver Gallery interviews fiber artists Gio Swaby and Adebunmi Gbadebo for the James Renwick Alliance for Craft 2021 Distinguished Artist Series.