Odili Donald Odita Lecture

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Odili Donald Odita was born in Enugu, Nigeria and lives and works in Philadelphia. Odita
is an abstract painter exploring color both in the figurative historical context and in the
sociopolitical sense. He is best known for his large-scale canvases with kaleidoscopic patterns
and vibrant hues, which he uses to reflect the human condition. For Odita, color is at once a
distinct phenomenon and a vehicle for mirroring the complexity of the world.

Odita has exhibited nationally and internationally in museums and art institutions
including; Every Day: Selections from the Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art (2019-
2020); Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem
(Travelling, 2019-2020); Front International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art
(2018); Prospect.4, The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp (2017-2018); Represent: 200 Years
of African American Art, The Philadelphia Museum of Art (2015), among others.

Odita has been commissioned to paint large-scale wall installations that include; The
Philadelphia Museum of Art (2021); The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond
(2020); Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2019); Newark Museum (2017); the
Nasher Museum of Art, Durham (2015); Ezra Stiles College at Yale University, New
Haven (2015); United States Mission to the United Nations in New York (2011); the New
Orleans Museum of Art (2011); the 52nd Venice Biennale exhibition, Think with the
Senses, Feel with the Mind, curated by Robert Storr.

Odili Odita is a Professor in Painting, Drawing & Sculpture at the Tyler School of Art and
Architecture at Temple University and is represented by the Jack Shainman Gallery,
New York, and the Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town.