Olalekan Jeyifous is a multimedia artist who leverages his background in architecture to re-imagine social spaces around issues relating to community and the built environment. Using architecture as a medium, Jeyifous creates public artworks, murals, banners, installations, and sculptures of Afro-futurist environments. Influenced by his Nigerian roots and immigration to the US as a child, Jeyifous uses his practices as a vehicle to investigate issues related to sustainability, preservation, and the imagination of urban spaces that serve black communities around the globe.

While some might view the works Jeyifous creates as utopian, the graphics express solutions to long-term issues affecting many communities and our planet, such as providing food with vertical gardens and reusing rainwater. His urban design and artistic inquiry not only address visual aesthetics; every element serves a function for the community. Jeyifous describes himself as a storyteller who creates works that serve as “suggestions (some would say visioning) as to what this future might be, but it’s not like I’ve worked out the tech or said what it was. It’s more about this vision of a place.” With creative practice, Jeyifous aids the public in imagining what our future might look like and what it can be with art and architecture at the centre of solution making.

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12 Encounters (part I), 2021
Augmented Reality sculptures, application
Courtesy of the artist
Commissioned and produced by the Athens Biennale
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12 Encounters (part II), 2021
Virtual Reality environment, 4’00’’
Courtesy of the artist
Commissioned and produced by the Athens Biennale

12 Encounters (part III), 2021
Video animation, 4’00’’
Courtesy of the artist
Commissioned and produced by the Athens Biennale