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Winnie Owens-Hart

She // Her // Hers

Ceramic Artist

Falls Church, Virginia

A slender woman with brown skin sits for her portrait, smiling slightly. She wears a light pink turtle-neck sweater, dangling earrings, and magenta head wrap.

Photo by Floyd Parks.

Winnie Owens-Hart is a curator, artist, educator, scholar, filmmaker, and critical thinker.

Owens-Hart’s life’s work is her interest in the creative process, the historical significance of clay and clay workers globally, and the preservation of all aboriginal ceramics.

She imagined, as a very young ceramicist, what pot-making and life must be like in an African pottery village. Initially this wish was realized in 1977 in a Nigerian pottery village and continues today, for the past ten years, in a traditional pottery village in Ghana.

Owens-Hart has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; a Renwick Fellowship and a Faculty Research Fellowship from the Smithsonian; was an international USA representative for FESTAC in Nigeria; and had her work selected for the 9th Biennale Internationale de Céramique d’Art in Vallauris, France.

Donor -This award was generously supported by the Ford Foundation.

This artist page was last updated on: 07.10.2024

Craft
A ceramic vessel shaped like the body of a person whose arms meet in the center and are painted with red fingernails. Dots of color surround the neck and the bottom of the vessel like a jeweled necklace and belt.

Adorned by Winnie Owens-Hart, “Little Women” series, 2006. Clay, dimensions 3 × 2.5 inches.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

A ceramic vessel in a vase shape. Around the neck of the vase, small figures hang on nooses.

Never Forget by Winnie Owens-Hart. Earthenware and fiber, dimensions 34 × 10 inches.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

A sculpture of a nude woman from the waist up, her hands resting upon the gray-blue tiles that surround her, as though she is emerging from the water.

Wade in the Water by Winnie Owens-Hart, “Sista’ African American Women” series. Kohler Slip Clay, dimensions 31 × 27 × 9 inches.

Photo by Kohler.