Magdalene Odundo, a Kenyan-born artist residing in England, embraces the ceramic firing and coil-building techniques used by African women for thousands of years. Although she studies the ceramic traditions of other world cultures, a modernist's sensibility guides her search for simplified, expressive form. A recurring theme in her work is the female body. Here, in this lustrous, burnished vessel, Odundo explores the natural contours and rhythms of a swelling pregnancy. The asymmetrical but ultimately balanced form reflects her rejection of the rotational symmetry of the potter's wheel in favor of hand-built, undulating, non-functional vessels.