translocation & transfiguration

Masud Olufani
Translocation & Transfiguration
Opening Night Reception: January 10, 2020

Translocation & Transfiguration explores how the social complication of “blackness” in America has served as a catalyst for the creative brilliance, cultural inventiveness, and spiritual resilience characteristic of the African diaspora. The artwork also looks at the objectification, marginalization and commodification of the black body, and how the sustained multigenerational trauma visited upon it necessitated a set of subversive practices and responses to insure survival. Through mixed media installations of sculpture, sound, video, photography, imagery and text, the artist investigates how philosophical transference is manifested in the struggle of the African American community, and how modalities for survival can serve as touchstones of inspiration to a society fragmented by racism, sexism and extreme expressions of nationalism. 

About The Artist
Masud Olufani is an Atlanta based multidisciplinary artist, actor and writer. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and the Savannah College of Art and Design where he received an M.F.A. in sculpture in 2013. His work has been featured in group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a South Art Prize state fellowship; a MOCA Working Artist Project Grant; and a Southwest Airlines Art and Social Engagement Grant. He is currently an Artist in Residence at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. His writing has been featured in Scalawag Magazine, Burnaway, Bahai Teachings, and he was a contributing writer for the Jacob Lawrence Struggle Series catalogue published by the Peabody Essex Museum. He is the co- host of Retro Report on PBS, a primetime investigative news show that looks at news events through the lens of history.

Exhibition Credits
Translocation & Transfiguration is supported in part by generous funding from the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Fulton County Department of Arts and Culture, City of Atlanta Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs and Hammonds House Museum Members and Donors.