ODILI DONALD ODITA: FROM PERIPHERY TO CENTER

August 9–December 20 , 2020

Nigerian-born, Philadelphia-based artist Odili Donald Odita is best known for his use of color in hard-edged, abstract paintings and public mural projects. Odita’s interwoven blocks of color are derived from a variety of influences; from the vibrant wallpapers he grew up with in his Columbus, Ohio household, to the old-school methods of Jazz and Nigerian Highlife music composition, alongside traditional African artifacts. For Laumeier, Odita’s findings will inform the design of commissioned flags to be exhibited outdoors in the Park and off site at Jeske Sculpture Park in Ferguson, Missouri. The designs are extractions of his research on the ideas around the periphery and the center, most specifically looking at the geographic and social relationship between Ferguson, Missouri in North County and Laumeier Sculpture Park, located in Sunset Hills in South County.

Using his signature color formations, From Periphery to Center is a meditation on similarities and differences, bonds and divisions. Odita’s works have great potential to reverberate with our visitors from near and far by creating a metaphorical and physical dialogue through sculpture. Shared between sites, his flags have the ability to engage with a range of visitors through his attempt to connect two seemingly disparate locales.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Born in Enugu, Nigeria Odili Donald Odita earned his MFA in 1990 from Bennington College, Vermont and his BFA in 1988 from Ohio State University. He has exhibited extensively in the United States and internationally. Selected solo exhibitions include: Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; M77 Gallery, Milan, Italy; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa; Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA; Maus Contemporary Art, Birmingham, AL. Other recent exhibitions include: Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville; Savannah College of Art and Design; Newark Museum, New Jersey; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Contemporary Art Museum Houston; New Orleans Museum of Art; Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia; Virginia Tech Center for the Arts; University Art Galleries & The John Young Museum of Art, of Hawaii, Manoa and the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, as a part of the exhibition ARS 11. In 2007, Odita’s commissioned projects include the 52nd Venice Biennale, Prospect.4, New Orleans, Newark Museum, and the Nasher Museum and Downtown Durham, NC. Odita lives and works in Philadelphia.

2020 Exhibitions are supported by Ellen and Durb Curlee, Alison and John Ferring, Jan and Ronnie Greenberg, Nancy and Ken Kranzberg, Joan and Mitchell Markow and Two Sister’s Foundation, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Mary Ann and Andy Srenco. 

Odili Donald Odita: From Periphery to Center is supported by the Windgate Foundation, the Whitaker Foundation and the Vilcek Foundation.