Oami Powers is a visual artist based in North Carolina. Raised in California and New Zealand, Powers graduated from the University of Canterbury with a B.A. in Art History and Classical Studies. She has attended ceramic and sculpture workshops with Cristina Cordova, Mathew McConnell, Zoe Durfour and Joanna Poag. Powers spent the better part of two decades working in clothing, textile and product design before falling in love with ceramics, which is now central to her practice. Her work has been shown in solo and juried group exhibitions nationwide, and is in private and public collections including Duke Energy and Maria V. Howard Art Center. Powers was Regional Emerging Artist in Residence at Artspace in Raleigh NC in 2018, and has twice been the recipient of the United Arts Council Artist Support Grant.
“I was born and raised in California and New Zealand, the daughter of people who made things with their hands: bread, clothes, gardens, toys, furniture. Further back, my ancestors were farmers, engineers, inventors, union organizers, brewers, and one polygamous bare-knuckle boxer. Like them, I know the world through the act of creating things with my hands.
My work is labor-intensive and obsessive; repetition and iteration anchor both my thinking and my making. I use natural materials like clay, graphite, and paper to build sculptures, drawings, and installations that explore the landscapes of memory, time, longing, and loss.
These works are spells for understanding. Intuition and observation trace tender webs of connection and interdependence: subconscious to conscious, self to other, individual to environment.”
