Magdalene A.N. Odundo DBE

Considered one of the premier ceramicists working today, Magdalene A. N. Odundo DBE, born in Kenya, produces ceramic objects whose beauty emanates from their voluptuous forms and shimmering surfaces. Hand- coiled and scraped smooth with a gourd, Odundo’s objects are laboriously produced. After the clay is shaped, it is covered with slip, fired, and then burnished by hand. The object’s color is determined by the firing technique: a first firing in an oxidizing atmosphere turns it red-orange while a second firing in an oxygen-poor atmosphere causes the clay to turn black.

This method places Odundo within the tradition of pottery production in sub-Saharan Africa. In most of Africa pottery is made primarily by women, and Odundo recognizes and reinforces this connection through her work’s anthropomorphic references to the female body. But her work also plays with traditional associations. For one, Odundo sees her works, unlike the utilitarian pots created by women, as containers of form and color. By conceiving her objects not as vessels but as sculpture—traditionally seen as the purview of men—she blurs the boundaries between these gendered realms.

Born in 1950, she received her initial training as a graphic artist in her native Kenya. In 1971 she moved to the United Kingdom and enrolled at the Cambridge Art School and completed a foundation course. In 1973 she then went to study ceramics at the University for the Creative Arts. In 1979 she enrolled at the Royal College of Art and completed her Post Graduate studies in 1982. In 2019 she was made Chancellor of the University for Creative Art {UCA}. In 2020 she was made a Dame in the Queen’s New Years Honors list.

Her work is in the collections of many international museums including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Brooklyn Museum, New York; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Stedelijk Museum Voor Hedendaagst Kunst, Hertogenbosh, Netherlands; The British Museum, London; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and the Frankfurt Museum for Applied Arts, Frankfurt, Germany.