Re-Union: Syd Carpenter, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Judy Moonelis, Sana Musasama, and Winnie Owens Hart

“Re-Union” brings together the works of Syd Carpenter, Winnie Owens Hart, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Judy Moonelis, and Sana Musasama. Each of these artists played a significant role in shaping American art–and the field of ceramics–during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Syd Carpenter’s large-scale clay and metal works investigate the complex history of African Americans and farming, from slavery to the present day. Winnie Owens Hart’s pioneering use of traditional African ceramic techniques and forms engage with contemporary issues concerning race, identity, and gender. Martha Jackson Jarvis’s monumental mixed media pieces explore African American and Native American spirituality, ecological concerns, and histories. Judy Moonelis’s intricate multimedia installations probe the intersections of art and science, drawing inspiration from neuroscience and anatomy and relating the human body to a variety of architectural contexts. Sana Musasama’s constructions of glass, organic materials, and clay are rooted in her global activist and educational endeavors in women’s/human rights. 

What distinguishes this exhibition is the collaborative nature of its curation, undertaken by the artists themselves. “Re-Union” therefore reflects the sustained connections between these women over the past 50 years. The nearly 30 works on view will be integrated throughout the Maguire Art Museum’s rotating exhibition galleries, symbolically woven together to underscore the deep friendships and shared inspiration that have sustained these artists throughout their careers.  

“Re-Union” will be held in conjunction with 2 other major exhibitions on Syd Carpenter, including a retrospective at the Woodmere Art Museum, and an exhibition of contemporary works by Carpenter at the Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College.