DAPHNE, Ala.—The United States Sports Academy welcomed award-winning Nigerian artist Ibiyinka Olufemi Alao on Jan. 27 for the academy’s committee meeting.

Alao was a winner of the 2001 United Nations International Art Competition, and he visited the academy during his United States tour.

He displayed his “Grace: That Even The World Can Pass Through It” art piece at the academy.

“It was really an incredible piece,” the academy’s communications coordinator Leigha Bolton said.

“I made it in 2006. It took about four months to make,” Alao said, noting the inspiration behind the art is his mother was a seamstress. “Lots of my pictures are very colorful because when I was growing up she was learning to be a seamstress and I was looking at her fabric.”

Academy committee chairperson Nancy Raia invited Alao to the event.

“We brought him here because he’s the United Nations Artist of the Year in 2001 and has a profound cultural impact,” Raia said.