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Olani Ewunnet is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York. Trained in urbanism and ecology at Harvard University, her work probes the intersections of African knowledge traditions, land, and language, often creating in community and across disciplines. She has presented work across North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
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For CV or other inquiries please contact info@olaniewunnet.com
Born in the San Francisco Bay Area, USA. Lives and works in New York City.
EDUCATION
Harvard University, Masters of Design, concentration Landscape, Ecology and Urbanism
Occidental College, Bachelor of Arts, Urban & Environmental Policy
DUO EXHIBITIONS
2026
Stone, Olani Ewunnet and Midnite Abioto, Black Art/ists Gathering, Portland, Oregon, USA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
Rituales de Ceniza (Ash Rituals), Abierto de Diseño, Mexico City, Mexico (Traveling Exhibition)
2025
Real Life Still Life, Prospect Park, New York, NY, USA
Flowers & Friends, Gul Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2024
Tote Modern, Anya P. Stevens Studio, New York, NY, USA
2022
Ye Deji Abeba Negn: Sonic Floral Imaginaries in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Center for African Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
2021
Nah, or Gestures of Resistance: Performance, Technology and Refusal, Dept. of Art, Open Studios, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Rose Urbanism in the New Flower, Center for African Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
2020
Geographies of Imagination, in biennial ‘Seismic Movements’, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2017
Azmari x Kikuyu, a visual and sonic exploration of resistance, love and revolution, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Black & Brown Love is Revolutionary, Avenue 50, Los Angeles, CA, USA
COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
2024
Lifting the Ground Up, performance in partnership with Rena Anakwe, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, NY, USA
2023
Monument Eternal: Black, film screening and installation in partnership with dragonchild, National Sawdust, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2022
Black Feast, Black Imagerial, landscape design in partnership with Esperanza Spalding, Prismid Sanctuary, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR, USA
Songwrights’ Apothecary Lab, research and spatial design in partnership with Esperanza Spalding, Harvard University Artlab, Cambridge, MA, USA
2018
Stories of Almost Everyone, performance in partnership with Ibrahim Quraishi, Özgür Erkök Moroder and Binta Diaw, Galerie Wedding, Berlin, Germany
Hidirtna (Sisters), sound design in partnership with Ezra Wube, presented at “Tales of Home”, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, USA
COMMISSIONS
2025
Adey Network, Mural Commission by the Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives for Kafoury Court, Portland, Oregon, USA
2023
Fish n’ Chips, Public Radio Program, in partnership with Abira Hussein and Short Cuts (series 36), BBC Radio 4, London, UK
LECTURES, TALKS, WORKSHOPS
2023
EKO! ECO! Distributed Black Ecologies, Black Geographies Conference, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
2022
Ye Deji Abeba Negn (I am a Flower at Your Yard), Soundscapes of Social Justice, Harvard University and Oxford University, Cambridge, MA, USA
EKO! ECO! Distributed Black Ecologies, Breakin’ Black Reachin’ Back, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
Discussant on Black Time by Mpho Matsipa, African Studies Workshop, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
2021
Commemorative Justice and the Necessity of Preserving Black Life, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Art As Activism: A Conversation with Nelson Makamo, Center for African Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Challenge Our Roots, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
2020
Geographies of Imagination, Artist Talk, Goethe Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Ziba, Toguna, Tree: Applications of Traditional Multi Use Space making in Contemporary African Architecture, Lecture, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, DE
2019
Geographies of Imagination, Lecture and Discussion, Symposium: Race, Power & Culture, BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium
Mapping Diversities: Processes and Reflections of the Dis-Othering Mapping Project, Panel, Symposium: Race, Power & Culture, BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium
2018
Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black Woman to her European Son, Discussion and Reading, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
DisOthering, a Workshop with the University of Delaware, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
RESIDENCIES, FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS
2026
Black Art/ists Gathering Residency
2024
Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Residency
2022
Prismid Sanctuary, Residency
2021
Harvard University, Center for African Studies Spring Research Grant
Harvard University, Community Service Fellowship at Soul Fire Farm
2020 – 2022
Harvard University, Dean’s Merit Scholarship
2017 – 2018
Congress Bundestag Exchange, Fellowship
2017
Davis Projects for Peace, Fellowship, founding Selamawi Project
Occidental College, Oxy Arts Initiate Grant
2016
Occidental College, Kahane Scholar Grant
2015
Occidental College, International Programs Grant
Occidental College, John Parke Young Fellowship
2014 – 2017
Occidental College, Dean’s List Grant
CURATION
2022
African Conversations: On Socio-Spatial Production in the Sub-Saharan Region, Harvard University and Addis Ababa University, Streamed online and Cambridge, MA, USA
2019
Buna Hour, Co-Curator, Discursive Public Programme, Post Colonial Poly Perspectives Festival, Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Berlin, Germany
2018-20
DisOthering: Beyond Afropolitan and Other Labels, Core Researcher & Curatorial Assistant, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
PUBLICATIONS
2026
forthcoming: Ewunnet, Olani “From Yared and the Birds – Flower Listening in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia” Chapter 12 in Ellen Waterman’s book “R. Murray Schafer’s Ecologies of Music and Sound Re-examined”
2023
Angélil, Marc, and Ewunnet, Olani, eds. Quo Vadis Addis?. 4.5” x 7”, 176 pages, Addis Ababa University and ETH Zurich: Something Fantastic A.D.
2022
Ewunnet, Olani.YE DEJI ABEBA NEGN: Sonic Floral Imaginaries in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Master's thesis, Harvard Graduate School of Design.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2026
forthcoming: Derillo, Eyob and Ewunnet, Olani “Temesgen ተመስገን”, BLISS vol. 2, Fall 2026
2020 Mahendru, Radha, “Dhaka Art Summit 2020: Seismic Movements, Ocula, February 21, 2020
2019
Chowdhury, Priyanka, “Exploring Geographies of Imagination with Olani Ewunnet”, The Daily Star, October 26, 2019
“Geographies of Imagination: ‘Disothering’ Art of the Non West”, The Dhaka Tribune, October 26, 2019
2018
Burke, Harry, “‘Geographies of Imagination’ Argues for a Different Way to Decolonize” Frieze, December 17, 2018