Odili Donald Odita: Equalizer, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2008)
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This site-specific mural inaugurates the new Project Space at Studio Museum in Harlem. Equalizer, by artist Odili Donald Odita (b. 1966), tells of two moments of migration from the African continent to the Americas. The first is the transatlantic slave trade, of the early 1500s to almost 1900, which remains the largest forced migration in world history. The second, and more recent, is the contemporary relocation and emigration of Africans in search of political and economic stability.

Though abstract and without discernable figures or direct narrative references, Equalizer is what Odita calls a “conceptual journey” in which the interactions of shape and color become metaphors for land and sea, movement and settling, challenges and hope. The explosive image on the red wall illustrates movement out of Africa. The adjacent wall to the right, strong blues and mauve predominates, representing the Atlantic ocean which Odita describes as “all tooth and treachery.” The next wall, where faint pastels blend to form somber gray tones that then give way to bright, prismatic earth tones on the right, represents potential and possibility. On the final wall, the patterns move from more horizontal orientation to smaller, animated fractals that are a metaphor for both the difficulties of immigrant life and the possibility that the African émigré, whether historical or contemporary, may find a new place to call “home.”

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Odili Donald Odita: Equalizer, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2008)
Studio Museum in Harlem

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‍Christine Y. Kim © 2026. Site Credit: Common Space