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Odili Donald Odita’s large-scale, abstract wall paintings operate at the intersection of Western modernism and African culture. Odita, who was born in Enugu, Nigeria, raised in Columbus, Ohio, and received an M.F.A. from Vermont’s Bennington College, creates vast, animated murals that are informed by African textiles, post-colonial discourse, television test band patterns, sensory overload, and digital technology. Odita's practice is to spend several days at a site with his sketchbook, observing the space. His initial pencil sketches are transferred to the walls using chalk lines to mark out the shapes. He then assigns colors. A crew of artists handles the laborious process of taping and painting, with each slice of color receiving multiple layers of paint. In the case of Butler Commons, the artist was particularly taken with the building's porous boundaries and rough-hewn edges, and he incorporated both influences into Up and Away.