Odili Donald Odita

Odili Donald Odita (b. Engu, Nigeria in 1966; lives and works in Philadelphia, PA) is an abstract painter whose work explores color both in the figurative historical context and in the sociopolitical sense. He is best known for his large-scale paintings and site-responsive installations with kaleidoscopic patterns and vibrant hues, which he uses to reflect the human condition. For Odita, color has the possibility of mirroring the complexity of the world as much as it has the potential for being distinct. In his paintings, we see color interwoven and mixed, becoming an active agent to express thoughts, ideas, and transformational change. Born inNigeria and raised in the American Midwest, Odita’s work is also heavily influenced by a sense of dual identity, combining aspects of Western modernity with African culture. His practice speaks to a contrast of cultures and a desire to create something new from a set of distinct parts. In this sense, his paintings, like a stitched or quilted textile, are weavings from different spaces, histories, and various temperaments, which convey the complexity of culture, identity, and being. Odita’s work is known for exploring the intersection of color and geometric abstraction, drawing inspiration from African textile patterns and design, as well as modernist art movements. With Heat, the artist delves into his current investigations into populism with the use of patterns to convey its systemic nature, with the color itself presenting as an almost seasonal awareness of the summer light in Maine.

Odili earned his BA with Distinction from Ohio State University in 1988 and his MFA from Bennington College in 1990. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2021); Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia (2020); Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2019); and Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (2015). Notable group exhibitions include New Grit: Art & Philly Now, Philadelphia Museum of Art (2021); Generations: A History of Black and Abstract Art, Baltimore Museum of Art (2019); How We See: Materiality of Color, Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis (2019); Front International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art: An American City, Cleveland (2018); Prospect 4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp, New Orleans (2017); Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind: Art in the Present Tense, 52nd Venice Biennale, Italy (2007). Odita’s work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the Baltimore Museum of Art; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; Philadelphia Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.