Odili Donald Odita
FIREWALL (NIGHT), 2023
Screenprint in 15 colours on Somerset 410gsm Rag paper
46 7/8 x 39 5/8 in
119.1 x 100.6 cm
edition of 35
Available at VFA
I have always said that to be a good teacher is to be a better artist. This is how I want to help them see: by example, I want to help them to become the best artists—through what they see, in what they say, and by what they do.
- Odili Donald Odita
Odili Donald Odita (b. 1966) is both artist and teacher. His focus is on color and form. He has been a Visiting Professor at Yale, the University of South Florida, Florida State and is currently Professor of Painting in Philadelphia at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University.
Odita was born in Nigeria but has lived in the U.S., with his parents and siblings, for most of his life. His father, an artist and art historian, founded the African Art History Department at Ohio State.
The amazing construct of Odita’s work lies in his bold use of color and design, combining Western abstraction and West African composition. He never uses the same color twice in a single work and the viewer’s eye is drawn across each pattern and every angle of his work.
“Painting becomes more fantastic in this notion of newness that engages and details the continuity of the everyday. In this respect, it becomes noble and profound, and normal and commonplace, all at the same time.” Odita said in a 2020 interview. “And I believe this is the beautiful thing that Warhol was doing in his work. Great artists can see the commonplace and the profundity of the everyday all at the same time.”
Odili Donald Odita: A Survey of Context is currently on view at the at the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York and will run through May 11, 2025.
Odita’s work is in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Pérez Art Museum in Miami, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Studio Museum in Harlem. He has created monumental mural commissions for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Savannah College of Art and Design, and Astor Park in Columbus, Ohio.
Odili Donald Odita lives and works in Philadelphia.
When Picasso died I read in a magazine that he had made four thousand masterpieces in his lifetime and I thought, ‘Gee, I could do that in a day. So I started. And then I found out, ‘Gee it takes more than a day to do four thousand pictures.
- Andy Warhol
A look at the way in which Andy Warhol (1928-1987) appropriated historical art (including works by Picasso) during the 1970s and ‘80s has traveled from the Skarstedt Gallery in Paris to the Skarstedt Gallery in New York. The works are currently on view and will run through March 29, 2025.
The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid is organizing an exhibition which brings together the work of Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock and other artists who pushed boundaries with their works. Warhol, Pollock and other american spaces will be on view from October 21, 2025 to January 25, 2026.
Please contact us if you would like more information about the work of Odili Donald Odita and Andy Warhol available at VFA.
References:
Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi. An Oral History with Odili Donald Odita by Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi. Bomb Magazine. December 1, 2020.
Taliesin Thomas. 10 Shows to See in Upstate New York This February. Hyperallergic. January 30, 2025.
