Description

Ladi Kwali was Nigeria's foremost modernist ceramicist. From a pottery background, she learned Gwari/Gbagyi hand-building techniques from maternal relatives. She later learned Western techniques like wheel throwing and kiln-firing at the Abuja Pottery Centre. This thrown circular bowl is glazed with tenmoku, a Chinese-inspired Japanese coating. Kwali painted its interior with a Gwari-style eel with zig-zagging scales. She described her combining of influences as "translating."