Kambui Olujimi

Studio Visit By José Carlos Diaz

This conversation with Kambui Olujimi, recorded in September, is a follow up from my last studio visit in March, during the Armory Show and the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. Around 2005 in Miami I first saw Olujimi’s work in a short film titled Winter in America, a collaboration with the artist Hank Willis Thomas. While Olujimi challenges established modes of thinking he also has a deep interest in history, political and personal, which he addresses through installation, photography, performance, video, sculpture, and painting. In this recording Olujimi talks about the Wide Awakes movement, a recent film project in Times Square, and his North Star series, which will be featured in next year’s Fantasy America exhibition at The Warhol.

José Carlos Diaz, chief curator at The Andy Warhol Museum, in conversation with New York–based artist Kambui Olujimi, whose work will be featured in next year’s Fantasy America exhibition.

About the Artist

Kambui Olujimi was born and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He received his MFA from Columbia University and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His work challenges established modes of thinking that commonly function as “inevitabilities.” This pursuit takes shape through interdisciplinary bodies of work spanning sculpture, installation, photography, writing, video, and performance. His works have premiered nationally and internationally at Sundance Film Festival, Museum of Modern Art, Mass MoCA, Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, and Kunsthal Rotterdam, among others. Olujimi has been awarded fellowship and residencies from Black Rock Senegal, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and The MacDowell Colony.

About Studio Visit

Studio Visit is an ongoing series that offers a candid look at the workspaces and art practices of emerging and established contemporary artists in America and beyond.

Warhol Without Walls

A global digital initiative created by The Andy Warhol Museum to expand public discourse around art and its role in a changing world, Warhol Without Walls signals a more boundless embrace of experimentation in the original content that the institution produces.

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