“Stories: Once Upon a Timeless”

Photographs by Alexandra de Steiguer

and

“Cosmic Connection” Ceramics by Ken Matsuzaki

About the Artists:

Alexandra de Steiguer is the sole resident caretaker on the Isles of Shoals during five deserted months of winter, and recently returned from her twenty-seventh sojourn on the islands. Her images offer a solitary, naturalist perspective: not only paying tribute to the wild elements that claim those particular shores and reflecting wider connections within the natural world, but also pointing to the transitory and humbling nature of our residence in such places. 

Alex creates her images using medium-format film and personally prints each one in her traditional darkroom. Her work has been exhibited in galleries throughout New England and is in the permanent collections of the deCordova Museum, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and the Ogunquit Museum of American Art. Her insightful musings on solitude, connection, and the creative process are published in her book Small Island, Big Picture and in original music composed and arranged on the Isles of Shoals. Alex’s story has been the subject of two internationally distributed short-form documentary films. She is a two-time artist fellow of the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.

Ken Matsuzaki was born in Tokyo in 1950 and received a degree in Ceramic Art from Tamagawa University School of Fine Arts, Tokyo. He moved to Mashiko in 1972 to apprentice with Tatsuzo Shimaoka (who himself had moved to Mashiko to study with Shoji Hamada). After a five-year apprenticeship, Matsuzaki established his own kiln, Yuushin Gama, down the road from Mr. Shimaoka. Matsuzaki’s works have a strong grounding in the Mingei philosophy though his approach is very contemporary, introducing a focus on the Oribe style with yohen, shino, and oribe glazing. Matsuzaki’s work has been exhibited all over the world, and is in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio), The Worcester Museum of Art (Massachusetts), the Tikotin Museum (Israel), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York).