Magdalene Odundo

Profile written by Marla Berns, Director of the Fowler Museum of Cultural History

Magdalene Odundo (born 1950) grew up in Kenya and moved to England in 1971 to continue her training in commercial and graphic arts. Growing restless with this medium, she decided to explore the possibilities of clay. She returned to her native Africa in 1974 and in 1975, visiting Nigeria and then Kenya, to study the ways women produce pottery using traditions of hand-building and firing that are thousands of years old. Odundo also traveled to Southern California and New Mexico where she became aware of the distinctive blackware vessels made in San Ildefonso. In 1982 Odundo completed a Masters Degree at the Royal College of Art in London, having embarked on developing the style and technique of making ceramic vessels associated with her work.