Steiner Auditorium
FREE and open to the public 

The Museum is pleased to present The Friend Lecture by Magdalene Odundo as the keynote speaker for the Bunting Biennial Ceramics Symposium.

Odundo is an internationally acclaimed ceramic artist whose hand built vessels have become the fulcrum of a world of pottery traditions. Born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1950, Odundo is presently professor of ceramics at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design University College in Farnham, UK.

Odundo’s thin-walled vessels embody a far flung ceramic history that ranges from her native Kenya to Greco-Roman antiquity. Blending an exceptionally large list of “ancient and contemporary ‘heroes,’ ” Odundo’s symmetrical and biomorphic pots reflect her own unique relationship with clay, fire, and form.

As she explains, “Clay is a simple substance with a complex structure playing havoc without and within our kilns, keeping us guessing and daring to change its natural composition. Yet, like an alchemist seeking to make gold, I continue to seek to create that ultimate elusive simple vessel which will hold magic for me.”

Odundo’s vessels suggest both animated and vocal beings rooted equally in cross-cultural techniques and forms and in modern and postmodern sculptural sensibilities. Beyond their aesthetic resonance with multiple artistic traditions, her work reflects a unique insight into the transcultural roles and meanings of ceramic vessels, both sacred and secular. Odundo’s work can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the British Museum, the Detroit Institute of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Victoria and Albert Museum. and the Birmingham Museum of Art among others.

The talk will be followed by a public reception.

For complete information about the Symposium and the schedule, please CLICK HERE.