Muraina Oyelami was born in Iragbiji, Nigeria, in 1940. An actor and musician in Duro Ladipo's theatre, he attended art workshops organized by Georgina Beier and Ru Van Rossem. Oyelami has a certificate in dramatic arts from the University of Ife, where he has taught music and dance (1976–87) and became a museum curator.

Oyelami is considered to be one of the foremost artists in the Oshogbo School, which emerged in South-West Nigeria in the mid-1900s. Fusing traditional Yoruba motifs with expressionist painting, his work exemplifies the bold lines and colours that frequent the visual art associated this School. 

Working primarily with pastel or paint on board, paper, or canvas, Oyelami composes works that make rich reference to folklore and the people and/or places in his surroundings. His palettes of embellished earth tones blur representational forms with abstraction, all within marks that allude to the hard contours of carved, Yoruba antiquities.

As one of the original products of the famous Mbari-Mbayo club and workshops, his varied and enormous list of credits went on to include the Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles; Staatlichen Kunsthalle, Berlin; Studio Museum, Harlem; Museum of African Art (Smithsonian Institute) Washington DC and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.

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