Magdalene Odundo

Magdalene Odundo is celebrated for her distinctive engagement with the vessel, a form she approaches as both an artistic language and a universal human archetype. Drawing on ceramic traditions from many cultures, she creates sculptural forms whose curves and proportions often evoke the human body. This anthropomorphic sensibility imbues her work with a sense of presence, movement and emotional resonance.

Odundo treats the vessel as an archetype that transcends culture, geography and time. It is both a container and a metaphor—an object that holds dualities such as interior and exterior, fragility and strength, presence and void. These oppositions underpin the broader themes that run through her practice: ideas of transformation, identity, memory, and the relationships that connect individuals and histories. Her making process is slow, deliberate and physically immersive. Hand-building using traditional coiling techniques, Odundo shapes each form with precision before carefully refining its surface. The distinctive depths of colour—ranging from warm terracotta to a polished black—are the result of nuanced firing methods that require expertise, patience and intuition. Leaving the vessels unglazed preserves a subtle porosity, which enhances their tactile immediacy and contributes to the sense that they are not inert forms but living entities shaped by breath, rhythm and time.

Odundo also works in glass, extending her interest in elemental materials and the interplay of tradition, collaboration and transformation. Across mediums, her practice is defined by clarity of form, material sensitivity and an ability to convey complexity with refined simplicity. Her works stand as meditative, timeless objects that speak to the richness of human experience and cultural interconnectedness.

Magdalene A N Odundo (b. 1950) received her initial training as a graphic artist in Kenya before moving to the UK in 1971. She studied at the Cambridge School of Art (now Anglia Ruskin University), the University for the Creative Arts and the Royal College of Art. In 2018, Odundo was appointed Chancellor of the University for Creative Arts (UCA) and was made a Dame in the Queen’s New Year Honours list in 2020. She has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, England (2024); the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada (2023-2024); The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, England and Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, England (2019); The High Museum of Art, Atlanta GA, USA (2017); British Council, Nairobi, Kenya (2005); Blackwell House, Bowness-on-Windermere, England (2001); The National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian, Washington D.C., USA (1995); Stedelijk Museum Voor Hedendaagse Kunst, s’Hertogenbosch, Netherlands (1994); Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany; and Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, Germany (1992).