Ebitenyefa Baralaye Joins Stamps Faculty

Detroit-based artist and educator Ebitenyefa Baralaye will join the Stamps School of Art & Design this fall as an art and design assistant professor.

July 17, 2024

Detroit-based artist and educator Ebitenyefa Baralaye will join the Stamps School of Art & Design this fall as an art and design assistant professor. Baralaye is a well-known ceramicist, sculptor, and designer whose creative work and research interests center around themes of culture, spirituality, and the African diaspora.

The connection Baralaye has to the Stamps School grew over the years into collaborative projects. Most recently, he worked with the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) and the Stamps Gallery as part of the UMMA exhibition Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina, by conducting a series of hands-on ceramic workshops. “Having worked closely with UMMA and Stamps Gallery around the Hear Me Now series allowed me to see the investment the institution puts into research, ideas, and engagement,” said Baralaye.

With his studio in Detroit, Baralaye is an active member of the city’s creative community. His work is on display in a solo exhibition entitled Host at David Klein Gallery through July 27, 2024.

“Detroit is a vibrant place to be as an artist and creative,” he said. “Something that has always mattered to me is the accessibility of art education to anyone who wants to engage in a creative life. “I’ve lived in New York, San Francisco, LA, and Chicago, but Detroit has been the most generative space and place. The city’s arrayed histories and legacies, from the Great Migration to Motown, inspire me.”

Beyond Michigan, his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at Friedman Benda Gallery, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, the Museum of the African Diaspora, and the Korea Ceramic Foundation. An example of Baralaye’s approach to his work can be found in the Akanza sculpture series dedicated to his late father.

“I started working on the Akanza series around the time of the killing of George Floyd,” said Baralaye. ”I was reflecting on my identity as a Black male in America and who my father was to me. My father unfortunately passed away due to COVID. After his death, I thought a lot about his legacy in my life. The sculptures are my father’s facial features blended with my own.”

Baralaye is excited about the prospects of conducting research at the University of Michigan. “Core things that ground my research are understandings of home, family, and heritage. There are many ways of thinking about visual languages of abstraction and how they draw their lineage back to the continent of Africa. I am invested in understanding histories of making and expression From traditions of language, vessel-making, and figuartion.

Baralaye received his BFA in Ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design and earned his MFA in Ceramics at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. From there, he participated in the AICAD Teaching Fellowship program at the San Francisco Art Institute from 2016 – 2018. He has completed residencies at the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, the Hambidge Center, and the Elizabeth Foundation Studio Program. Before joining the Stamps faculty, Baralaye most recently served on the faculty at the College for Creative Studies, holding the title of Section Lead of Ceramics. He says that teaching makes him a better artist and designer.

“The most engaging thing about teaching is the students themselves,” said Baralaye. “As a teacher, I help students develop their own identity as artists and researchers. Teaching also provides inspiration that flows back into my work and practice. I am deeply inspired by my colleagues and the creative dialogue at Stamps and look forward to being part of this vibrant community.”