Odili Donald Odita – b. 1966, Enugu, Nigeria. (Lives and works in Philadelphia)
At the confluence of personal memory and cultural history, Odili Donald Odita’s vibrant and disorienting colored geometries take into account a host of references including his parents’ native Nigeria and his memories of the colors of houses in Columbus, Ohio, where he was raised. His palette, however, is not only a bi-product of experience, as he employs various theories of color interaction to organize dynamic spatial pathways that suggest a sense of place or even a linear narrative. Equally influenced by post-colonial thought, his room-sized painted installations are structured to realign the kinesthetic experience of the viewer to a world of dynamic spatial tensions constructed through color shapes and reflect, if obliquely, the precarious balance of being a citizen and artist straddling two vastly different worlds. Odita has had recent solo exhibitions at the Institute for Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, as well as Jack Shainman Gallery and the Studio Museum in Harlem, both in New York. He was included in the 52nd Venice Bienniale in 2007.
