Ladi Kwali has been called a pioneer of modern pottery in Nigeria. She came to international prominence in the 1960's working with the English studio potter Michael Cardew who helped to launch the government-funded Abuja Pottery Training Centre. It was at Abuja that Ladi Kwali first began to make
glazed stoneware and this work was exhibited to great acclaim in the Berkeley Galleries in London and in Paris. Ladi Kwali also joined Cardew on demonstration tours to Europe (1962) and America (1972). This exhibitions draws on a number of private collections and includes several of the demonstration pots from the 1962 tour: two made at the Farnham School of Art and two from Bryanston School in Dorset. Included in the exhibition are a number of Ladi Kwali's exceptional water vessels as well as bowls and tankards to indicate the range of domestic pieces. The glazed (and unglazed) stoneware vessels are decorated with incised lizards, birds and snakes and she used a blade-like palm rib to make these marks on bigger pots and a porcupine quill for smaller thrown ware.
The exhibition has been curated by Simon Olding and Magdalene Odundo.