Bennington College is proud to announce its newest trustee, Odili Donald Odita (MFA ‘90). Odita was born in Enugu, Nigeria and lives and works in Philadelphia. He is an abstract painter exploring color both in the figurative historical context and in the sociopolitical sense. In addition to general trustee duties, Odita will also serve on our education and community life committee, and we are so looking forward to his partnership and thought leadership as we chart Bennington’s future together.
“I am happy to see the completion of a circle in my invitation to be a member of the Board of Trustees at Bennington College,” said Odita. “It still feels like yesterday that I was able to attend Bennington as a Graduate student in Painting; to work as a Drawing teacher at the Bennington July Program; and later be given the opportunity to speak as a Visiting Artist at VAPA and CAPA. I hope to contribute all and more of what Bennington has given to me over these years.”
He has had several national and international exhibitions 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.
On campus, Odita’s work, Cut (2016, Acrylic on 60 x 40 in. canvas ), can be found on display in Newman Court inside the Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) building. This work was also in the Vital Curiosity exhibition in 2017.
Odita has been the recipient of a Penny McCall Foundation grant in 1994, a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant in 2001, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany grant in 2007. He has been commissioned to paint large-scale wall installations that include; The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (2020); the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2019); Newark Museum (2017); Mural Arts Program, Philadelphia (2016); the Nasher Museum of Art, Durham (2015); Ezra Stiles College at Yale University, New Haven (2015); the George C. Young Federal Building and Courthouse in Orlando, FL (2013); United States Mission to the United Nations in New York (2011); the New Orleans Museum of Art (2011); Give Me Shelter, the 52nd Venice Biennale exhibition, Think with the Senses, Feel with the Mind, curated by Robert Storr.
Among the accolades he has received for his work, reporter Tom McGlynn of The Brooklyn Rail wrote in October that Odita “has brought a renewed sense of purpose to abstract painting.”
"Odita's creative, professional and sociopolitical expertise will be an immeasurable asset to our work," said Board Chair Nick Stephens '77. "We look forward to working with him as we continue to strengthen Bennington's position in higher education."
BENNINGTON COLLEGE
Bennington College is a liberal arts college in southwestern Vermont that distinguished itself early as a vanguard institution within American higher education. It was the first to include the visual and performing arts in a liberal arts education, and to integrate work in the classroom with work in the field. The College aims to educate students towards self-fulfillment and constructive social purposes in an increasingly complex global society. Bennington believes that equity, diversity, and inclusivity—in community and in curriculum—are vital to achieving those aims. Bennington’s distinguished visual arts alumni have shaped the field in every way, as artists, curators, dealers, critics, and gallerists. Some of its notable alumni include Helen Frankenthaler ’49, Kathy Halbreich ’71, Sally Mann ’73, Dan Cameron ’79, Holly Block ’80, Carrie Moyer ’82, Matthew Marks ’85, Andrea Fiuczynski ’85, Tom Sachs ’89, Odili Donald Odita MFA ’90, and Anna Gaskell ’92. Learn more at bennington.edu.