Born 1941
from Iragbiji, Nigeria

Yinka Adeyemi (1941 - ) also produces large, multicolored batiks.  Like Muraima Oyelami, he went to Oshogbo from the nearby town of Iragbiji.  His family had artistic talents and interests:  his father made beaded crowns, a unique Yoruba art form, and his uncle painted barbershop signs that advertised hair styles.  The fact that his mother was a storyteller influenced the content of his work.  Adeyemi joined the Duro Ladipo troupe in 1962 as an actor and musician.  After traveling with the troupe to Berlin and London in 1964 and 1965 to participate in festivals there, he acted in Kongi's Harvest, a film based on a play of the same name by Wole Soyinka.
After leaving Oshiogbo, he went to work marking farm boundaries for the Ministry of Agriculture.  During this time his experiences of various indigenous customs formed the basis of much of his later work.  His batiks, which often feature musicians, were dyed in strong red, yellow and magenta, rather than in the delicate colors associated with the batiks of Sangodsare.  Eyes are dynamic focus in his work, and the texture of pattern and shape crowd the space to create a compact unity.  Adeyemi also paints, carves and creates mosaic murals using cowrie shells and pottery shards.  

(above biography from New Currents, Ancient Rivers:  Contemporary African Artists in a Generation of Change by Jean Kennedy, 1992)