SAN ANTONIO — Jody Folwell made main waves on the 1975 Indian Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The artist’s first ceramic submission, “Half a Step” (1975), represented an enormous leap away from Pueblo custom. Although it was executed in a typical form with a extremely polished prime and backside, Folwell “had to go against the grain,” as she recalled within the exhibition catalog, by adorning the piece’s midsection with a working buffalo motif sculpted in aid. The occasion’s judges hadn’t seen something prefer it out there’s 50-plus-year historical past, and debated whether or not the groundbreaking vessel even certified as Pueblo pottery.
Innovation prevailed, and Folwell received a Museum of New Mexico Basis Buy Award for her submission. This episode marked the start of her trailblazing profession, the place taking “half a step” from her heritage has allowed her ample room for expression and experimentation. O’ Powa O’ Meng: The Artwork and Legacy of Jody Folwell on the McNay Artwork Museum presents 26 works spanning greater than half a century.
Set up view of O’ Powa O’ Meng: The Artwork and Legacy of Jody Folwell on the McNay Artwork Museum, San Antonio. Pictured: “T’ahp-ahsa’wae (Dad’s Fish)” (c. 2000), clay and paint
Folwell lives and works in Kha’p’o Owingeh (Santa Clara Pueblo), the Tewa-speaking village in northern New Mexico the place she was born in 1942. She realized to make pottery from her mom and great-grandmother, utilizing these vessels for carrying water, cooking, storing meals, and different operations of each day life. Pottery was additionally an vital supply of revenue for her household.
However being a potter additionally carries profound which means within the Tewa tradition. In a documentary movie screening within the exhibition area, Folwell’s sister, scholar Tessie Naranjo, notes that the Tewa language makes use of the identical phrase for “earth” and “us.” She explains that this reveals “how deeply we feel about our connection to the Earth.” Describing her course of in the identical video, Folwell shares that she prays to the Clay Mom whereas digging her uncooked supplies, asking for perception within the creation of her work.
Although she has all the time felt deeply rooted in her tradition, she started her personal ceramics apply within the early Nineteen Seventies with a want to seek out her voice. “When Jody began making pottery, there were only four designs that were commonly used, and deemed acceptable to use, on Kha’p’o Owingeh pottery,” scholar Bruce Bernstein writes within the exhibition catalog. On the time, Pueblo and different Indigenous artists had been typically pressured by market forces to comply with sure aesthetic, technical, and materials requirements to be able to acquire common gross sales and patronage.
Jody Folwell, “Wild West Show” (1996–2003), clay, paint (courtesy the College of Superior Analysis. Picture by Addison Doty, © Jody Folwell)
It was dangerous to maneuver outdoors of these conventions, however Folwell selected to forge her personal path. “With traditional pottery it is so structured, it’s in a box,” she says within the documentary. “You have to climb out of that box to be able to do something else.”
The artist adopted the controversial “Half a Step” with different works that broke the mould at subsequent Indian Markets, together with “The Hero Pot” (1984), a vessel created with a non-Pueblo collaborator in a inexperienced shade — a primary on the Indian Market — and “Roober Stampede” (1990), that includes motif of a working horse made with a rubber stamp, one other first. With later works, corresponding to “Wild West Show” (1996–2003) and “You Don’t Push Bush” (c. 2003), Folwell set her sights on america’s fraught historical past of imperialism, struggle, and oppression concentrating on international “enemies” and Indigenous teams.
All of those works mirror the artist’s artistic ethos, which builds on Pueblo pottery’s historical past whereas making searing up to date social and political commentary that bridges disparate instances, cultures, and locations. Folwell connects with this sense of continuity on a bigger, historic scale — a few of her strategies have been utilized by Pueblo peoples for 1000’s of years — and on a way more private stage: she has handed her potter’s information to her daughters and granddaughter, whose works are additionally on show within the exhibition. In truth, within the Tewa language, the exhibition’s title interprets to “I came here, I got here, I’m still going.” The phrase completely summarizes Folwell’s courageous life and work.
Set up view of O’ Powa O’ Meng: The Artwork and Legacy of Jody Folwell on the McNay Artwork Museum, San Antonio
Set up view of O’ Powa O’ Meng: The Artwork and Legacy of Jody Folwell on the McNay Artwork Museum, San Antonio. Left: “Sacred Lake” (1995); proper: “Lucky’s Conch” (c. 1990)
Set up view of O’ Powa O’ Meng: The Artwork and Legacy of Jody Folwell on the McNay Artwork Museum, San Antonio. Left to proper: “Ruby Red Lips” (c. 1995); Jody Folwell and Bob Haozous (Chiricahua Apache), “The Hero Pot” (1984); “Roober Stampede” (1990)
Jody Folwell, “Ancient” (2018 or 2019), clay, paint (photograph by Addison Doty, © Jody Folwell)
O’ Powa O’ Meng: The Artwork and Legacy of Jody Folwell continues on the McNay Artwork Museum (6000 North New Braunfels Avenue, San Antonio, Texas) via January 4, 2026. The exhibition was co-organized by the Fralin Museum of Artwork on the College of Virginia and the Minneapolis Institute of Artwork, with Lauren Thompson overseeing the McNay iteration. It’s going to journey to the New Mexico Museum of Artwork in Sante Fe from February 6 to June 21, 2026.
