CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.- The Fralin Museum of Art has been awarded $125,000 from the Terra Foundation for American Art to support “O’Powa O’Meng: The Art and Legacy of Jody Folwell.” The grant marks the first award for The Fralin and the University of Virginia (UVA) from the Terra Foundation for American Art and will fund the traveling exhibition and scholarly exhibition catalog. The Fralin partnered with the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) to organize “O’Powa O’Meng.” The exhibition will be on view at Mia from September 2024 to January 2025, and at The Fralin Museum of Art from February to June 2025. Two additional venues are anticipated.
“This sponsorship from the Terra Foundation for American Art to support ‘O’Powa O’Meng: The Art and Legacy of Jody Folwell’ and the accompanying catalog directly advances The Fralin’s mission of encouraging the spirit of curiosity and promoting diversity of thought through the study, care and celebration of art,” said Karen E. Milbourne, J. Sanford Miller Family director of The Fralin. “This important gift reinforces The Fralin Museum of Art’s continued focus on highlighting the work of artists of all backgrounds by showcasing one of the most important and consequential Native American female potters in the United States.”
The Terra Foundation for American Art supports temporary exhibitions that amplify diverse voices and invite enriching dialogue that explores the history of American art from various perspectives. “O’Powa O’Meng” aligns with that goal, bringing recognition to a trailblazing Native American artist, introducing new scholarly work and providing emotional encounters with Folwell’s pottery.
Jody Folwell is a contemporary potter from Kha’p’o Owingeh (also known as Santa Clara Pueblo) located in northern New Mexico, who is widely considered among the most significant and influential clay artists of her generation. With an artistic practice that spans five decades, she has revolutionized contemporary Pueblo pottery and Native art more broadly by pushing the boundaries of form, content and design. She is the first Pueblo artist to employ writing and designs as personal, political and social narratives directly on her pottery. The exhibition assembles 26 works from public and private collections for her first solo exhibition. The retrospective centers Folwell’s practice and situates her within the intersecting artistic contexts of Kha’p’o Owingeh, Native American art and Contemporary and American art more broadly.
The exhibition title, which translates to “I came here, I got here, I’m still going” in Folwell’s Tewa language, reflects the artist’s personal journey toward devoting herself to pottery. Addressing legacy, the exhibition features works by Folwell’s mother Rose Naranjo, daughters Polly Rose Folwell and Susan Folwell, and granddaughter Kaa Folwell. Visitors will leave with an expanded and more critical awareness that contemporary Native artists are creative, inventive and engaged with the world around them while still being grounded in their communities and traditions.
The exhibition is co-curated by Adriana Greci Green, Ph.D., curator of Indigenous arts of the Americas at The Fralin Museum of Art; Jill Ahlberg Yohe, Ph.D., associate curator of Native American art at Minneapolis Institute of Art; and Bruce Bernstein, Ph.D., senior scholar, School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico. A fully illustrated catalog will accompany the exhibition, with contributions by the co-curators and leading artists Lonnie Vigil (Nambé Pueblo), Diego Romero (Cochiti Pueblo), Les Namingha (Hopi) and Cara Romero (Chemehuevi); media producer Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne and Mescalero Apache); designer Kevin Coochwytewa (Isleta Pueblo and Hopi); Kha’p’o Owingeh scholar and sister of the artist, Tessie Naranjo, Ph.D.; and family members — all artists themselves — Roxanne Swentzell, Rose B. Simpson, Eliza Naranjo Morse and Kaa Folwell. Didactics include first person narratives, contributions about Jody's work and curatorial perspectives that place Folwell within, though not bound by, several art genres. A short video, shot on location in Folwell's home in Kha’p’o Owingeh, will augment written materials and offer visitors a window into the artist's worlds.
