‘O’ Powa O’ Meng’ Celebrates Trailblazer of Pueblo Pottery

Summer exhibition at the McNay presents a comprehensive survey of Jody Folwell’s career

SAN ANTONIO (June 18, 2025) – Encounter the merging of tradition and innovation through iconic pottery in “O’ Powa O’ Meng: The Art and Legacy of Jody Folwell,” on view at the McNay Art Museum July 31, 2025-Jan. 4, 2026. The exhibition offers an overview of Folwell’s career, presenting approximately 25 works spanning more than five decades.

A contemporary potter from Kha’p’o Owingeh (Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico), Folwell is widely considered among the most influential clay artists of her generation. Since devoting herself to pottery in the early 1970s, Folwell has consistently leveraged her technical skill to push the boundaries of form, content and design.

“Jody Folwell is a daring artist who continues to inspire the next generation,” said Matthew McLendon, Ph.D., the McNay’s director and CEO. “‘O’ Powa O’ Meng’ both celebrates Folwell’s legacy and demonstrates the arc of her artistic development. The McNay looks forward to sharing her groundbreaking pottery with the San Antonio community.”

Folwell is the first Pueblo artist to place personal, political and social narratives on her pottery. She pushed the boundaries of acceptable pottery styles by incorporating changes that sustain and strengthen the traditional foundation of design, blending old and new. She popularized the trend of using writing and imagery as tools for political commentary and social justice advocacy, opening the doors for other artists throughout the Pueblo pottery world. 

Visitors to the exhibition will experience some of Folwell’s most famous works, marking major milestones throughout her career. The artist credits her pioneering legacy to a series of “half steps,” where she would create works based on ancestral forms and then differentiate herself through added or altered design elements. In 1975, she entered her first submission into the prestigious Santa Fe Indian Market. Knowing she needed to create something traditional, she also desired to go against the grain. Her creation, “Half a Step,” combined traditional clay techniques with a creative twist. She only polished the lower and upper thirds of the jar, leaving the middle section unpolished with sculpted figures of buffalos racing the perimeter. Her 1984 submission “The Hero Pot,” created in collaboration with Bob Haozous, caused a stir with its non-traditional green color, painted red lightning bolts and etched images of cowboys falling from horses. The innovative work won Best of Show and altered the trajectory of Pueblo pottery.

Among her more recent works is “Buffalo Soldier” (2023), an assemblage of five tiles, 10 clay balls and a sculpted pot created in response to the barriers broken when Barack Obama was elected President. In “Wild West Show” (1996-2003), Folwell produced a Western film-style scene depicting President George W. Bush as a modern cowboy in a critique of the Iraq War. Additional pottery designs in the exhibition vary greatly from fish painted in an homage to her father’s love of fishing to a hand-polished work inspired by Japanese ceramic vessels to an etched depiction of the Rio Grande in a meditation on the life-giving force of water.

“‘O’ Powa O’ Meng’ honors Jody Folwell’s technical brilliance and fearless innovation, as well as her commitment to storytelling that connects across generations,” said Lauren Thompson, curator of exhibitions at the McNay. “Each work of art tells a story — not just of her own journey, but of a cultural lineage.”

Folwell lives and works in Kha’p’o Owingeh, one of six Tewa-speaking villages in northern New Mexico. The community has an ancestral and continuous tradition of pottery making. As a child, Folwell was inspired by the pots that were made and used by her family for everything from cooking and storage to gifts and economic tools. She learned pottery by watching and doing, rather than by formal instruction. “O’ Powa O’ Meng” translates to “I came here, I got here, I’m still going” in the Tewa language.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring essays and personal reflections by Folwell’s longtime artistic peers, friends and family members. The McNay will host artist-led programs to complement the exhibition. Visit mcnayart.org/events for details on all events.

“O’ Powa O’ Meng: The Art and Legacy of Jody Folwell” is organized by the Fralin Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Major support for the national tour and exhibition catalogue is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Curator-in-charge at the McNay Art Museum is Lauren Thompson, curator of exhibitions.   

Support is provided by the Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation of 1992; the Flora Crichton Visiting Artist Fund; Ewing Halsell Foundation, Louis A. and Francis B. Wagner Endowment; and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. 

Images available here.

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About McNay Art Museum
The McNay Art Museum engages a diverse community in the discovery and enjoyment of the visual arts. Built in the 1920s by artist and educator Marion Koogler McNay, the Spanish Colonial Revival residence became the site of Texas’ first modern art museum when it opened in 1954. Today, 200,000 visitors a year enjoy works by modern masters including Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Edward Hopper, Joan Mitchell, Alice Neel, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The 45,000-square-foot Jane & Arthur Stieren Center for Exhibitions, designed by internationally renowned French architect Jean-Paul Viguier, features major exhibitions annually. The 25 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds include sculptures by Willie Cole, Robert Indiana, Luis A. Jiménez Jr., Alejandro Martín, George Rickey, Joel Shapiro, Kiki Smith, Tom Wesselmann and others. For more information about the McNay, visit www.mcnayart.org.

The McNay is open Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday from Noon to 5 p.m.