Procession (Primary Title)
Odili Donald Odita, American, born 1966 in Nigeria (Artist)
Odili Donald Odita is best known for his colorful acrylic abstract painting of slightly irregular and off-kilter geometric forms. The artist mines a site's landscape for cues for his compositions—investigating the power of shape, pattern, repetition, and color to contribute to and highlight its environment. Odita's dual identity, being born in Nigeria and raised in the American Midwest, is reflected in his works. His paintings are rooted in the modernist tradition of geometric abstraction and point out the double inheritance of western and African abstraction.
In 2019, VMFA commissioned Odita to create a work inspired by the collection. Procession is the visual response to the museum's extraordinary holdings that includes the work of artists of the African American South, contemporary masters, and midcentury avant garde painters. Proceeding in the same vein as Sol LeWitt, whose Wall Drawing #541 graces the museum's 20th-century gallery entrance from the Marble Hall, Odita executed a work that also responds to the specificity of space, creating a dynamic play upon the Atrium's architecture.
Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 2019.43
Some object records are not complete and do not reflect VMFA's full and current knowledge. VMFA makes routine updates as records are reviewed and enhanced.
