O’Powa O’Meng: The Art and Legacy of Jody Folwell

Jody Folwell (b. 1942), a contemporary potter from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, has revolutionized Pueblo pottery, and Native art more broadly, by pushing the boundaries of traditional form, content, and design. She is the first Pueblo artist to use pottery for advocacy of social justice and political commentary, and over the past 5 decades, single-handedly set the trend for employing writing and innovative designs as direct narrative that is now widely used by younger clay artists.

A tightly focused career retrospective, and the first for the artist, O’Powa O’Meng: The Art and Legacy of Jody Folwell, is organized by Mia and the Fralin Museum of Art and presents about 25 iconic works that demonstrate the arc of Folwell’s groundbreaking artistic output to a wider audience. O’Powa O’Meng (“I came home, I found myself, I’m going forward”) integrates this trailblazing Native American artist within the wider canon of contemporary American art.

This exhibition is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art.

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