Denver, CO – March 29, 2023 – Abstract painter Odili Odita will share his thoughts on abstraction during a discussion with Joyce Tsai, PhD, Clyfford Still Museum (CSM) director, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on April 13 in the Museum lobby. Prior to the program, the Museum’s galleries will be open from 6 to 6:30 p.m.
The talk is the first in the “Big Ideas Series” during the Museum’s exhibition Awful Bigness, which features some of Clyfford Still’s largest and most ambitious works. The series will explore monumental topics related to exhibition themes.
This program is $5 for the public, free for CSM members, and registration is required. Space is limited. The next talk in the series will feature scholar and curator Bridget Cooks on June 29. Awful Bigness is on view until September 10.
About Odili Odita
Odili Donald Odita was born in Enugu, Nigeria, and lives and works in Philadelphia. Odita is an abstract painter exploring color in the figurative historical context and sociopolitical sense.
Odita has exhibited nationally and internationally in museums and art institutions, including; Every Day: Selections from the Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art (2019-2020); Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem (Travelling, 2019-2020); Front International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art (2018); Prospect.4, The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp (2017-2018); Represent: 200 Years of African American Art, The Philadelphia Museum of Art (2015), among others.
Odita’s large-scale wall installation commissions include: The Philadelphia Museum of Art (2021); The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (2020); Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2019); Newark Museum (2017); the Nasher Museum of Art, Durham (2015); Ezra Stiles College at Yale University, New Haven (2015); United States Mission to the United Nations in New York (2011); the New Orleans Museum of Art (2011); the 52nd Venice Biennale exhibition, Think with the Senses, Feel with the Mind, curated by Robert Storr.
He is a Painting, Drawing & Sculpture professor at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University. The Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, the David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, and the Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, represent Odita.
About the Clyfford Still Museum
Designed by Allied Works Architecture to display the revolutionary art of one of the 20th century’s greatest artists, the Clyfford Still Museum opened in November 2011 in Denver’s Golden Triangle Creative District. Considered one of the most important and mysterious painters of the 20th century, Clyfford Still (1904-1980) was among the first generation of abstract expressionist artists who developed a new and powerful approach to painting in the years during and immediately after World War II. The Museum’s collection represents more than 93% of the artist’s lifetime output. As the steward of Still’s art and legacy, the Museum’s mission is to preserve, exhibit, study, and foster engagement with its unique collections; generate outstanding exhibitions, scholarly research, educational and other cross-disciplinary programs that broaden the definition of a “single-artist” museum; and be a gathering place for the exploration of innovation and individual artistic endeavor. Connect with the Clyfford Still Museum on Facebook, Twitter ,Instagram, YouTube, or at clyffordstillmuseum.org.
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