Salon 94’s new location has a third floor that you access through a back staircase. If you know Magdalene A.N. Odundo DBE’s ceramics, her work basically beckons you. You know it is her work, you always want to get closer, and you only wish you could touch. The forms and surface are like no other.

“Considered one of the premier ceramicists working today, Magdalene A. N. Odundo DBE, born in Kenya, produces ceramic objects whose beauty emanates from their voluptuous forms and shimmering surfaces. Hand- coiled and scraped smooth with a gourd, Odundo’s objects are laboriously produced. After the clay is shaped, it is covered with slip, fired, and then burnished by hand. The object’s color is determined by the firing technique: a first firing in an oxidizing atmosphere turns it red-orange while a second firing in an oxygen-poor atmosphere causes the clay to turn black.” (Salon 94)

I watched this live talk last September through the 3 Works series, hosted by Chief Curator Sequoia Miller at the Gardiner. It would be well worth your time to watch as well.