Odundo at Bluecoat Display Centre
To round off its 50th anniversary celebrations Bluecoat Display Centre will be showing new ceramics by Magdalene Odundo (until 28 November)
Odundo showed a selection of her ceramics at the Bluecoat in 1985 at the start of her career and returns to Liverpool now an acknowledged leader in the field. She’s made the nine new pots especially for the exhibition and as Bluecoat’s Samantha Rhodes says, ‘They’ve literally just been made.’ She adds, ‘We didn’t give Magdalene any particular brief as we were just glad to have the opportunity to show her work. These pots are very much in her usual style and it’s fascinating to see them together as a single body of work.’ Odundo’s trademark coiled earthenware pots are beautifully simple in shape, with a wonderful organic, tactile quality which is enhanced by the blackened, burnished effect achieved during the firing processes.
Odundo was born in Kenya, coming to the UK to study graphic arts in 1973, before moving on to ceramics at the Royal College of Art. She’s currently Professor of Ceramics at the University for the Creative Arts at Farnham and last year was awarded the African Art Recognition Award by Detroit Art Institute’s Friends of African and African American Art.
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