Maruja Powys

ARTIST

Maruja Powys is a ceramics sculptor, based in Santa Ana, California. She was born in Santander, Spain and raised in Lima, Peru. She pursued ceramic studies in the Catholic University of Lima and in the Escuela Massana of Barcelona, Spain. The mystery of interiority as it relates not just to the body, but humanity and its vicissitudes, are a primary focus of her work.

Through her portraiture, Maruja explores how mythic archetypes are transformed by changing historical perspective, challenging stereotypes of the feminine and imperialistic narratives. Of her figures, Maruja says, “I like to make obvious this ‘condition of vessel’ in ceramic pieces. I especially like to make a correlation with the human body as a container or ‘wrap’ for internal realities.” This expression of the individual as a vessel, always in relationship to the external world and what a body carries through it, is an ongoing commentary that is both deeply personal for the artist, and an act of political resistance.