Saturday, 22 February 2025 at 10:00AM ET
This is a virtual event via Zoom
hosted by Pucker Gallery.
This event will be recorded and
uploaded to our YouTube channel.
Join us Saturday, 22 February 2025 at 10:00AM ET for a conversation on the artwork of Pucker Gallery artist Yoshinori Hagiwara.
This WebinART will be an opportunity to appreciate the subtle and apparent ease with which the artist continues his reverence for the Mingei tradition in a personal and proficient manner. Honoring the past masters, he has fashioned a superb style that invites joy and use.
Together with:
Yoshinori Hagiwara – Pucker Gallery Artist
Randy Johnston – Pucker Gallery Artist
Andrew Maske - Professor of Museum Studies and Director of Gordon L. Grosscup Museum, Wayne State University
Mara Williams - Brattleboro Museum Curator Emerita
Caroline Staller – Gallery Associate
Bernard Pucker – Gallery Director
Mugi Hanao - Friend and Translator
The exhibition Back to the Center will be on view at Pucker Gallery from 1 March through 4 May 2025
About Our Panelists...
Born in 1974, as the fifth generation of the Hagiwara family ceramic workshop, Yoshinori Hagiwara currently resides in Mashiko, Japan. He studied and researched at the Tochigi Prefectural Ceramics Instructional Institute, and his work has since been selected for inclusion and won numerous prizes at the Japan’s National Art Exhibition for multiple years. Hagiwara’s recent ceramics have broadened beyond his well-known persimmon glaze, and he has incorporated yellow kaki, blue nuka, and white glazes into his artistic vocabulary. He has created his own expression through using these glazes, and exhibits great control in creating elegant forms. In 2014, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry designated Hagiwara as a "Traditional Craftsman." His ceramics are included in significant public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Schein Joseph Museum of Ceramic Art at Alfred University in Alfred, New York, and the Tikotin Museum of Art in Haifa, Israel. Since 2019, Hagiwara has been a full member of Kokuga-kai, and a judge with the organization since 2020. His work has been exhibited by Pucker Gallery since 2010.
Randy Johnston is a recognized artist who has exhibited internationally for 51 years. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship, two Visual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Distinguished Teaching Award in American Arts from the James Renwick Society of the Smithsonian, and the Walter Gropius Award for Artists. A member of the International Academy of Ceramics, Johnston received his MFA from Southern Illinois University and a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of Minnesota, where he studied with Warren MacKenzie. He also studied in Japan at the pottery studio of Tatsuzo Shimaoka (who was himself a student of Shoji Hamada). Johnston has presented hundreds of lectures and guest artist presentations worldwide, and his work is represented in numerous international museums and private collections.
Andrew Maske received his doctorate in Japanese Art History from Oxford University. He teaches courses concentrating on the art of East Asia (China, Korea, and Japan). As a curator of Japanese art between 1999 and 2005, he developed the exhibition Geisha: Beyond the Painted Smile and served as editor and primary author of the critically acclaimed volume by the same name. This exhibition explored Japanese geisha both as the subject of artwork and as performing artists themselves from the eighteenth century to the present day. Dr. Maske also played a major role in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2003 catalogue, Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth Century Japan, which examined the revolution in Japanese aesthetics that began in the late sixteenth century. He has published articles and reviews in Archaeometry, Journal of Japanese Studies, Orientations, and Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan. During the seven years he lived in Japan, Dr. Maske studied numerous aspects of Japanese art and culture, practicing chanoyu (tea ceremony), Japanese dance, and music by way of the shamisen. In 2006-2007 he was awarded a Fulbright research fellowship to study the development of contemporary ceramics in China.
Mara Williams assumed Emerita status in 2021, after curating exhibits at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center for thirty-three years. Her area of expertise is modern and contemporary art. As a partner in Arts Bridge LLC, Williams leads exhibition teams for institutions developing new large-scale museum projects. She holds an A.B. in theatre from Boston College; an MFA in museology from Syracuse University and has completed doctoral course work and passed comprehensives in comparative arts at New York University. She is Chair of the Wolf Kahn Foundation. She has served as chair of the Vermont Arts Council and as a board member of the New England Museum Association, as well as three terms on the Senate Curatorial Advisory Committee for the U.S. Capitol.
Caroline Staller is a ceramic sculptor and educator. She attended New Mexico State University in 2011 and graduated in 2015 with degrees in Fine Art and Biology with a Biochemistry minor. She completed her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Missouri in 2021 where she studied under artists Bede Clarke and Joseph Pintz. Her small-scale tableaus and carvings of horses are peaceful and reflective with a focus on the beauty she sees in ‘simple’ objects both made by hand and found, which is reminiscent of her childhood exploring the desert on horseback and finding unique objects aged by the harsh elements. She has taught ceramic sculpture at Harvard Ceramics where she encouraged students to focus on a close conversation with clay through color, texture, and form. Caroline currently works at her home studio as well as Pucker Gallery.
Bernie Pucker is the director of Pucker Gallery, which he founded with his wife, Sue, on Boston's historic Newbury Street in 1967. Pucker Gallery represents over fifty artists from around the world, presenting approximately ten exhibitions annually, often paired with artist talks, virtual “WebinARTs,” and Gallery receptions. Bernie is currently a Board Member at the Japan Society, Boston, and the Jewish Publication Society. He also serves on the Leadership Council for Facing History and Ourselves as well as the Artistic Advisory Board for the Terezin Music Foundation. Previously, he has served as President of Solomon Schechter Day School, President of the Newbury Street League, and Board Member for the Friends of Copley Square and The Unity Project, among others. Bernie received his MA in Modern Jewish History from Brandeis University and his BA in History and English Literature from Columbia College.