Born in 1950, Magdalene Odundo received her initial training as a graphic artist in her native Kenya. In 1971, she moved to the United Kingdom and enrolled in the foundation course at the Cambridge School of Art. In 1976, Odundo graduated in Ceramics, Photography and Printmaking from the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK. She completed her Post Graduate studies at the Royal College of Art in 1982. In 2019, Odundo was appointed Chancellor of the University for Creative Arts (UCA) and was made a Dame in the Queen’s New Year Honours list 2020.

Odundo’s work is in the collections of many museums internationally including The British Museum, London; The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Brooklyn Museum, New York; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Gardiner Museum, Toronto; Stedelijk Museum Voor Hedendaagst Kunst, Hertogenbosh, Netherlands; Frankfurt Museum for Applied Arts, Frankfurt; and Die Neue Sammlung The Design Museum, Munich.