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

From The Minneapolis Institute of Art: Jody Folwell (b. 1942), a contemporary potter from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, is widely considered among the most significant and influential clay artists of her generation. This tightly focused career retrospective, long overdue, presents iconic works that demonstrate the arc of her groundbreaking artistic output. O’ Powa O’ Meng showcases Folwell’s remarkable contributions, integrating the trailblazing Native American artist within the wider canon of contemporary American art.

This fully illustrated exhibition catalog, with contributions from the co-curators and leading Native artists, reveals how Folwell has revolutionized Pueblo pottery, and Native art more broadly, by pushing the boundaries of traditional form, content, and design. She was one of the first Pueblo artists to use pottery for political commentary and advocacy of social justice, and she singlehandedly set a trend, now widely used by younger clay artists, for using writing and designs as direct narrative.

Authors include: Adriana Greci Green is curator of Indigenous arts of the Americas at the Fralin Museum of Art. Jill Ahlberg Yohe is a consulting curator of Native American art. Bruce Bernstein is senior scholar at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe. 

Details: This exhibition was organized by the Fralin Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. This catalogue and exhibition are made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art.