Paula Winokur

Paula Cotton Winokur (1936–2018)[1] was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. She attended Tyler School of Art, where she was a student of Rudi Staffel, and where she met her future husband, Robert Winokur,[2] who would also become a noted ceramic artist and teacher. She was one of the leading ceramic artists in the United States from the 1970s until her death in 2018. She was actively making work until a serious illness in the last year of her life.

Paula Winokur is best known for the work she made during the 1990s through the 2010s which had an environmental focus.[3] A focus on porcelain was inspired by the work of her teacher at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Rudi Staffel, but her approach was quite different. Staffel's work focused on the translucent qualities of porcelain, whereas Paula Winokur's work emphasized the physical strength of the material. When Winokur began to learn about climate change and global warming's impact on icebergs, she also turned to the ability of porcelain to mimic the surface texture of ice.

From the 1970s to the early 2000s, Winokur taught ceramic art at Arcadia University (originally Beaver College), Glenside, PA. In 2002 she was elected to the American Craft Council College of Fellows.[4]

Winokur's work is held in major collections:

• Renwick Gallery, Smithonian American Art Museum[5]
• Philadelphia Museum of Art[6]

Notable exhibitions:

• Material Legacy, Philadelphia Art Alliance, 2015[7][8]
• Fellowship in Clay, The Clay Studio, 2015[9]
• Paula Winour: A Tribute, The Clay Studio, 2019[10]
• Wave Hill, 2012