Lot 54 Emily Odongo
Emily Odongo (Kenyan, born 1973)
Ascension, 2019Signed ‘EMILY A. ODONGO’ (lower right)
Acrylic on canvas
150.5 x 150.5 cm
Ksh 250,000 – 350,000
(US$) 2,600 – 3,700
Provenance: Direct from the artist
Sold Ksh 305,240
Emily Odongo is unique among her generation of Kenyan artists for being one of only a handful who have chosen abstraction as their main mode of expression. Odongo approaches her painting as an expression of her inner life, using colour to probe the tensions between stillness and movement, solidity and transience. Working mostly in acrylics on canvas, often on a large scale, her paintings are responses to emotional experiences, at once visceral yet refined. Ascension (2019) marks a shift in Odongo’s painting, adopting a palette of soft pastels and fresh whites to connote freshness and a re-imagined purity, in contrast with the vibrant, pulsating colours for which she is known.
Odongo is a widely collected artist, with works included in numerous private collections and corporate collections including those of NCBA, Kenya Airways, the Aga Khan Foundation and the African Wildlife Foundation.