Odili Donald Odita, “Inside Out,” 2022, screenprint, edition of eight. 30 inches by 30 inches. Courtesy of the artist.
Works by artist Odili Donald Odita will be presented Sept. 13-Dec. 7 by the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Odita is a Philadelphia-based abstract painter whose work explores 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. Most of Odita’s work is inspired by the vibrant textiles of his home country, Nigeria, mixed with patterns from Western modernity. AEIVA’s exhibition is a mid-career survey of works spanning the artist’s entire career.
Odita will give an artist lecture at 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13, across the street from AEIVA in the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center’s Sirote Theatre. UAB Arts members will be able to interact with Odita following his 5 p.m. lecture.
The lecture and opening reception are free and open to the public. The events are part of the 2024 UAB Arts Block Party, a free celebration of art, music and food. Read more and register.
“Odili Donald Odita is easily one of the most vital abstract painters of the 21st century and has garnered some of the art world’s highest accolades,” said John Fields, the Lydia Cheney and Jim Sokol Endowed Director of AEIVA. “We are honored to host this exhibition at AEIVA and thrilled that we can provide to both our campus and Birmingham community an opportunity to hear an artist of Odita’s stature lecture about his career and process."
AEIVA, located at 1221 10th Ave. South, Birmingham, is open from noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Admission is free. Visit aeiva.uab.edu or call 205-975-6436 for information.
Odita has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia (2020); Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida (2019); and Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (2015). Notable group exhibitions include “Giants: The Dean Collection,” Brooklyn Museum, New York (2024); “New Grit: Art & Philly Now,” Philadelphia Museum of Art (2021); “Generations: A History of Black and Abstract Art,” Baltimore Museum of Art (2019); “How We See: Materiality of Color,” Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, Missouri (2019); Front International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art: “An American City,” Cleveland, Ohio (2018); “Prospect 4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp,” New Orleans, Louisiana (2017); “Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind: Art in the Present Tense,” 52nd Venice Biennale, Italy (2007).
Odita’s work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the Baltimore Museum of Art; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; Philadelphia Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.