Artist Statement:

My figures speak to me of that peaceful place in myself - calm, open, aware.

My art reflects the influence of my childhood in Japan and of the rigorous discipline of my apprenticeship in traditional Japanese wood-fired ceramics. Wood firing and working with clay became a way of life, defining an aesthetic that guides my work and life.

For 40 years, my work with clay has challenged and nurtured me, enriched and transformed my life. The work has evolved from vessels and animal shapes to the human-like forms and abstract wall reliefs of recent years. The changes have come out of my relationship to the materials and process—the clay, kiln, firing, and my changing intentions. For the past 20 years I have also been working in bronze—most recently in China, where I’ve made larger-than-life figures for public spaces.  

The forms I make—pots and sculpture, bronze and ceramic—are a tangible expression of my evolving inner self. There is beauty and power in their quiet simplicity. 

I work in New England where I built my studio and 30-foot-long Japanese style wood-firing tunnel kiln (anagama).

  

Private and Public Collections

2021–2023 Horokan Museum, 20-meter ceramic wall mural, One World, Amami- Oshima, Japan

2019 Western Connecticut State University, large scale bronze figures, Danbury, CT

2018 The Bauhinia (HK Chamber of Commerce), large scale bronze figures Ning Bo, PRC

2018 Horokan Museum, large scale bronze figures and wall mural installation, Amami- Oshima, Japan

2014 Mattatuck Museum, Sitter, Waterbury, CT

2012 Canadian Academy, Earth, Water, Sky, mural commission, Kobe, Japan

2010 Jing’An International Sculpture Park, Large scale bronze figures, Shanghai, PRC

2006 University of North Carolina, Currents, mural installation, Asheville, NC

2006 Yodogawa Christian Hospital, Song of Life, mural commission, Osaka, Japan

2002 Hartford Hospital, One Earth, One Family, mural commission, Hartford, CT

  

Solo Exhibitions

2022 Shanghai Minhang Park Exhibition, Shanghai, PRC

2018 Joy Brown on Broadway, New York, NY

Morrison Gallery, Kent, CT

Hudson Beach Glass, Beacon, NY

2013 - 2017 Kerry Centre, Shanghai, PRC

2015 Tianjing Hang Lung Gwang Chang, Tianjing, PRC

Sara Gallery, New York, NY

2011 Morrison Gallery, Kent, CT

2010 Hudson Beach Glass, Philadelphia, PA

Art Within Gallery, Kent, CT

2008 Marie Trichet Gallery, Litchfield, CT

Hudson Beach Glass, Beacon NY

2007 Coady Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM 1989–2006

2006 Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, CT

2005 Elena Zang Gallery, Shady (Woodstock), NY

Signature Gallery, Atlanta, GA

Munson Gallery, Chatham, MA

2002 Hiro Gallery, Wakayama, Japan

1994 Kumagai Museum, Tokyo

Au Gallery, Osaka

1994 Paris–New York–Bangkok Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand

1993 Gallery Gianna Sistu, Paris, France

1988 Paris–New York–Kent Gallery, Kent, CT

1983-1991 Departure Gallery, New York, NY

1981 Mingei Gallery, New York, NY

 

Selected Group Exhibitions

2021 First Shamian Public Art Exhibition, Shamian Island, Guangzhou, PRC

2020 Shanghai FISH International Sculpture Park, Shanghai, PRC

2012-2017 Leo Galley, Shanghai/Hong Kong, PRC

2010-2016 Shanghai Art Fair, PRC

1997-2016 Elena Zang Gallery, Shady (Woodstock), NY

2014 Hong Kong Art Centre, The Human Conditions, Hong Kong, PRC

2010, 2014 Moon Gallery, Nara, Japan

2010 La Borne Ceramic Center, L’Amour de Feu, La Borne, France

2004-2010 Munson Gallery, Chatham, MA

2002-2010 Signature Gallery, Atlanta, GA

1987–2009 Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Ct

Boscobel Sculpture Garden, Cold Springs, NY

Tainan University, Taiwan

2008 Heinz Center, Philadelphia, PA

2007 Fuller Museum, Fire and Ash, Brockton, MA

2006 Dubuque Museum of Art, Innovation in Contemporary Clay, Iowa

Center for Craft, Creativity and Design, Architectural Echoes in Clay, NC

AKAR, Ohio City, OH

Weber Fine Art, Greenwich CT

2005 Ferrin Gallery, Lenox, MA

Cheryl Hazan Gallery, NY, NY

2004 Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, International Wood Fire Exhibition, IA

2001 Ohio Craft Museum, Clay, Wood, Fire, Salt, Columbus, OH

Worcester Center for Crafts, The Ancient Feminine, MA

1999 University of Iowa Museum of Arts, International Wood-fire Exhibition, IA

Odyssey Gallery, Asheville, NC

1996 Brookfield Craft Center, Woodfire in America, Brookfield, CT

Northern Clay Center, Clay, Wood, and Fire, Minneapolis, MN

1992 Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT

1990-1992 Wheeler-Seidel Gallery, New York, NY

1991 University of Iowa Museum of Arts, American Woodfire, Iowa City, IA

 

Professional activity and awards

2015 Clay Art Center, presenter, Divergent Currents, Portchester, NY

2010 La Borne Ceramic Center, presenter, L’Amour De Feu, La Borne, France

2009 Tainan University, presenter, International Wood Firing Conference, Taiwan

2006 Hotchkiss, presenter, Clay - The Art of Earth and Fire, Lakeville, CT

2003 Ruth Steinkraus-Cohen Memorial Outstanding Women of Connecticut Award, Hartford, CT

1998 Founded Still Mountain Center to foster East–West artistic exchange

1986 Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation grant for kiln construction, NY

1981 Wakayama Museum, award for ceramic sculpture, Wakayama, Japan

 

Education

1978 Researched kilns and potteries in Korea and Japan

1975–1978 Ceramic apprenticeships, with Ichino Toshio Tamba, Japan and Morioka Shigeyoshi Wakayama, Japan

1972 B.A. in Fine Arts, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL

1951–1968 Raised and schooled in Japan