Solo Art Exhibition by Yogi Dada to Open November 20 at Birmingham Public Library

 

Yogi Dada – Go Back to Africa III, 2018

Solo Art Exhibition by Yogi Dada to Open November 20 at Birmingham Public Library

Written by Margaret Splane, Library Assistant III - Art for Everyone, Community Engagement, Fundraising

Birmingham, Ala. - The Birmingham Public Library (BPL) is excited to announce a retrospective of the vibrant, graffiti-inspired paintings of local artist Yogi Dada. Scheduled to open on Friday, November 20, Culture & Spirit: The World of Yogi Dada is the most extensive showing of the artist’s work in her career, as well as her first solo show in over a decade. Join Dada at an opening reception on Tuesday, November 24, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Central Library. 

Culture & Spirit features a sweeping selection of Dada’s abstract, large-format paintings. Created between 2018 and 2024, they are characterized by brilliant colors and graceful geometric forms rendered in acrylic on canvas. Some of the works depict human faces and figures while others are nonrepresentational. Dada’s paintings address themes of identity, freedom, and the human experience. 

Yogi Dada – The Nuptials, 2023 

Dada says her creative influences are rooted in her childhood and youth, which she spent in upstate New York. “I always saw graffiti as a voice unheard, finding its way to the public in the most peculiar places. A declaration of existence in freedom. The intentional exposure to African culture through home education brought another dimension to my developing voice. A spiritual connectivity to self-acceptance, vivid colors, ancestral imagery, and symbols.” 

 In addition to Dada’s brightly colored canvases, a few black-and-white works will be on display in Culture & Spirit. Some of these are spotlighted in Dada’s award-winning documentary Graffica, while another is a collaboration with Birmingham-based artist Jon Osborne. Dada and Osborne painted Viewsic Dances during an open rehearsal of a production by world-renowned choreographer Germaul Barnes, which débuted at the Alabama Ballet in 2019.  

 

Yogi Dada was keynote speaker and played drums at the 2026 BPL Local Authors Expo.

Yogi Dada is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses visual art, filmmaking, performance, poetry, music, African drumming, wearable art, and writing. A graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, she has developed a distinctive creative language that brings together bold color, African-inspired imagery, graffiti, rhythm, storytelling, and spiritual expression. 

As a self-proclaimed “Artist 4 Humanity,” her desire is to inspire and uplift humanity through the joy of creativity. Learn more about Yogi Dada and her work at www.yogidada.com. 

Culture & Spirit: The World of Yogi Dada is made possible in part by a grant awarded to the Friends Foundation of BPL by the Alabama State Council on the Arts.