News & Events

Renowned Sculptural Ceramicist Magdalene Odundo to Speak in Asheville

August 10, 2012

Magdalene Odundo, the renowned Kenyan-born sculptural ceramist and professor, will speak about her work at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 14, at the Asheville Art Museum. Her talk is presented in partnership with UNC Asheville's Center for Craft, Creativity & Design (CCCD), which has sponsored Odundo's visit as artist-in-residence in Western North Carolina.

Educated in Kenya, India and the Royal College of Art in London, Odundo creates sculptural ceramics influenced by traditional Nigerian and Kenyan hand-built pottery, and by Mexican blackware pottery. According to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, her blend of influences "prevents Odundo from being pigeonholed as a strictly African artist ... [she] has created work unique within the landscape of contemporary art."

Odundo is professor of Ceramics at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, England, and was appointed patron and trustee of the English National Society for Education of Art & Design. In 2008, she was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for Services to the Arts.

Odundo is working with students and faculty from UNC Asheville, Western Carolina University, Appalachian State University, Warren Wilson College and Haywood Community College as part of her residency awarded by the CCCD, the 2012 International Artist in Residence, Dialogue in Clay: A Cross-Cultural Learning Experience.

Odundo's talk is open to the public as part of $8 paid admission to the Asheville Art Museum; $7 for students with ID; free for museum members. For more information, call the CCCD at 828.890.2050.