Description
BIO
Joanna Powell is a native Texan, born in Dallas. She grew up going through other people’s trash with her Dad and siblings each weekend hoping to find treasure. Her Mom was an English teacher and her father was a dental lab technician. Growing up it was never just hot outside, it was “Hotter than hell!” Southern sayings such as this, influence the stories she illustrates in her work. The work revolves around the comedy that comes from the tragic parts of human existence. She explores themes of embarrassment, beauty and sexuality through the use of the ceramic vessel. Powell is interested in how the world we live in is different than we perceive it, from the tangible to the intangible. Rendering anything, i.e. a tornado to a tree, illustrates the discrepancy between perception and reality that drives her practice.
Joanna Powell (b.1981,Dallas,TX) received a BFA in ceramics from the University of North Texas(2008) and received an MFA in ceramics from the University of Colorado at Boulder (2012). Powell has exhibited her work throughout the United States including The Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, The Montana Territorial Prison, Deer Lodge, Showpen Gallery, Denver; and Greenwich House Pottery in New York city. In 2011, she was a LEAP finalist at The Center for Contemporary Craft. Powell was a finalist in the 2014 Zanesville Prize for Contemporary Ceramics and received Honorable Mention. From 2013-2015 she was a long term-resident at The Archie Bray Foundation. Recently, she was named a 2015 NCECA Emerging Artist. Currently, she has a full time studio practice in Helena, MT.
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EDUCATION
2012 M.F.A. Ceramics, The University of Colorado, Boulder
2009 Post Baccalaureate in Ceramics, The University of North Texas, Denton
2008 B.F.A. Ceramics (Magna Cum Laude), The University Of North Texas, Denton
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SOLO EXHIBITIONS (excerpt)
2019
– Lay Me in a Hot Bed and Try Not to Drown, The Jane Hartsook Gallery at Greenwich House Pottery, New York, NY
2016
– Everything Belongs To You., Denison Artspace, Newark, OH
2013
– Joanna Powell: A Little Less Embarrassed, Showpen Gallery, Denver,CO
2009
– Cake: New Works by Joanna Powell, North Gallery, University of North Texas, Denton, TX