MoMA’s Odili Donald Odita: Songs from Life
by Nigel Jordan
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City is presenting a striking new site-specific commission by Nigerian-American artist Odili Donald Odita titled Songs from Life. Installed in MoMA’s lobby on Floor 1, this vibrant work transforms the museum’s first impression into a cascading kaleidoscope of colour, pattern, and sound-inspired abstraction - and it will remain on view through Spring 2027.
An Immersive Commission in Colour and Rhythm
Songs from Life is not a conventional exhibition of framed paintings. Instead, Odita has painted directly onto the walls and columns of MoMA’s lobby with flat acrylic latex paint, creating an immersive environment of bold, interlocking abstract forms. Because the work is conceived for this specific space, visitors encounter it immediately as they enter - a dazzling doorway into contemporary art that blends visual and sensory experience.
For Odita, music plays a key role in his creative process. In this commission, each painted section is “anchored” by a selection of songs that inspired his thinking - shaping colour choices, rhythm, and composition. The artist sees parallels between the physical impact of music on the body and the emotional resonance of colour and form on the viewer, and he aims to evoke a communal sense of energy and movement through this work.
Creating the Work: Process and Presence
The painting was made over the course of six weeks in the museum lobby, allowing visitors to witness aspects of its emergence as part of the public experience. What we see now is the culmination of that sustained creative engagement - a floor-to-ceiling tapestry of hues and shapes that breaks from traditional gallery presentation and invites movement, reflection, and connection.
Curated by Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi (The Steve and Lisa Tananbaum Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture) with Elizabeth Wickham (Curatorial Assistant), and realized with close collaboration from MoMA’s exhibition design and production teams, Songs from Life highlights MoMA’s ongoing commitment to presenting large-scale, site-specific contemporary projects that expand how audiences experience art.
Why It Matters
Odili Donald Odita’s work is known for its dazzling use of chromatic abstraction — rhythms of colour that engage both the eye and the body. In Songs from Life, he synthesizes his visual language with musical inspiration, creating a multisensory greeting to one of the world’s leading museums of modern and contemporary art.
This commission underscores how public, architectural spaces in museums can be transformed into living artworks — where pattern and colour become tools for shaping collective experience, inviting visitors to slow down, look around, and feel the space in new ways.
Exhibition details:
📍 The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) — Floor 1 Lobby, New York City
🗓️ Odili Donald Odita: Songs from Life — Through Spring 2027 (The Museum of Modern Art)