Magdalene Odundo ‘s exhibition “ A Dialogue with Objects ” enters its final month at the Gardiner Museum. Presented until April 21, 2024, this exclusive artistic presentation has given the public the opportunity to discover previously unseen works by the renowned Kenyan-British ceramist. Magdalene Odundo ‘s first exhibition in Canada and the largest North American presentation ever staged in her honour, “A Dialogue with Objects” is a grandiose ode to the exceptional work of this renowned potter-ceramist.
Born in 1950, Magdalene Odundo graduated in graphic design in Kenya before moving permanently to the UK, where she graduated in ceramics, photography and printmaking from Farnham University of the Creative Arts in 1976. During the 1980s, her passion for ceramics was revealed, a traditional and refined art she masters with remarkable skill and expertise. The exhibition “A Dialogue with Objects” highlights the relevance and depth of her artistic practice through delicate sculptural vases that captivate visitors with their aesthetic appeal and the artist’s obvious skill.
More than 20 works spanning Magdalene Odundo ‘s career take over the museum space, including new pieces directly from her studio, others from the Gardiner Museum‘s permanent collection, and objects on loan from major Toronto museums and private collections. This exhibition comes four years after his major show “The Journey of Things” at Hepworth Wakefield in the UK. Following in the footsteps of her acclaimed UK presentation, this exhibition at the Gardiner Museum will showcase Magdalene Odundo ‘s work with contextual objects from art and archaeology, offering a glimpse of her global influences.
During her years of study in England, the Kenyan-British artist explored British museums, where she discovered remarkable works for the first time. Despite the fact that these works were created to assert colonial power and authority, she was able to draw on these collections as an artist, woman and potter from the South, establishing links between these objects and the world she experienced growing up in Kenya.
Engaging in an immersive artistic conversation, works from diverse geographic regions, eras and media enter into dialogue, linking the ceramist’s work with ancient and symbolic objects such as a marble figurine from the Cyclades, a Ndebele apron from South Africa and a painting by Trinidadian-Canadian artist Denyse Thomasos. These artistic exchanges transcend time and culture, illustrating transcultural work that is neither colonial nor exploitative, while questioning the role of museum collections of historical objects and the hierarchies of Western art.
The originality of Magdalene Odundo ‘s work lies in her entirely manual creative process, sublimated by finishes that are both smooth and radiant. The ceramics of this Kenyan-British artist represent an unlikely fusion of traditional techniques from various world cultures, the exceptional rendering of which is the result of Magdalene Odundo‘s unrivalled talent. She spends months working on a single vessel, slowly and precisely, investing years of experimentation and technical mastery into each of her pieces.
Today, her practice of ceramics and pottery transcends borders, earning her works a place in the world’s greatest collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Museum of African Art, the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Gardiner Museum, among others. A reputation that makes Magdalene Odundo proud and happy: “I always hoped to be invited to do an exhibition in Canada, and to have it at the Gardiner Museum is very special for me, especially as one of my favorite pieces from my studio is part of their collection“.
The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalog with essays by Dr. Sequoia Miller, Chief Curator and Deputy Director of the Gardiner Museum, Dr. Elizabeth Harney, Dr. Nehal El Hadi and Dr. Barbara Thompson, with a foreword by Sue Jefferies, former Curator of Modern and Contemporary Ceramics at the Gardiner Museum. To offer visitors an even more immersive experience, special events are planned throughout the exhibition.
On April 3, multidisciplinary artists offered poetic interpretations inspired by the themes, stories and emotions evoked by Magdalene Odundo‘s ceramics, establishing a dialogue between visual art and the spoken word. Speakers included award-winning poet, theater producer and playwright Luke Reece, writer and composer Martin Gomes, Shakkoi aka Need Some Koi, a talented artist, and multidisciplinary artist Tracey Kayy.
The afternoon of April 13 saw the launch of Slow Art Day, a moment dedicated exclusively to a guided and engaging activity around the works of Magdalene Odundo in ” A Dialogue with Objects “. The aim of the event is to help more people discover the joy of looking at and loving art.
Finally, to round off this series of events associated with the exhibition, a discussion salon hosted by Dr. Elizabeth Harney and Dr. Nehal El-Hadi is scheduled for April 18. Join the book’s contributors for a discussion and guided tour of the exhibition, allowing visitors to discover Magdalene Odundo ‘s artistic journey and her influence on contemporary ceramics.
