Magdalene Odundo

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Magdalene Odundo is a studio potter who was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1950. She received her early education in both India and Kenya. She moved to England in 1971 to continue her training in graphic art. In 1974-1975, she visited Nigeria and Kenya to study traditional hand-built pottery techniques. She also traveled to San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico to observe the making of blackware vessels. In 1976, Odundo received a BA from St. Joseph's College of Art and Design. She then earned a masters degree at the Royal College of Art in London. She taught at the Commonwealth Institute in London from 1976 to 1979 and at the Royal College of Art in London from 1979 to 1982. She lives and works in Surrey.

Odundo's best-known ceramics are hand built, using a coiling technique. Each piece is burnished, covered with slip, and then burnished again. The pieces are fired in an oxidizing atmosphere, which turns them a red-orange. A second firing in an oxygen-poor (reducing) atmosphere causes the clay to turn black.

Her work may be found in museum collections worldwide.

[edit] References

• Berns, Marla C., Ceramic Gestures, New Vessels by Magdalene Odundo, Santa Barbara, University Art Museum, University of California, 1995.
• Jegede, Dele, Contemporary African Art, Five Artists, Diverse Trends, Indianapolis, Ind., Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2000.
• Anthony Slayter-Ralph, Magdalene Odundo, Lund Humphries, London, 2004.