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, 25 April 2026 at 10:30AM ET for a conversation with Pucker Gallery artist Ken Matsuzaki.
This webinART will be an opportunity to peek into Ken Matsuzaki's relationship with nature through his ceramics. After representing his work for over 25 years, we are still excited to watch his growth and ability to develop beauty through clay.
Together with:
Ken Matsuzaki – Pucker Gallery Artist
Randy Johnston - Pucker Gallery Artist
Mara Williams - Brattleboro Museum Curator Emerita
Mugi Hanao - Friend and Translator
Caroline Staller - Gallery Associate and Artist
Dr. Carl Herbert - Gallery Associate
Bernie Pucker – Gallery Director
The exhibition Close to Nature will be on view at Pucker Gallery from 2 May through 14 June 2026.
About Our Panelists:
Ken Matsuzaki was born in Tokyo in 1950. He 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. His work 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).
Randy Johnston is a recognized artist who has exhibited internationally for 52 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. Johnston has presented hundreds of lectures and guest artist presentations worldwide, and his work is represented in numerous international museums and private collections.
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. Recent solo exhibitions include: Gathering Light: The Art of Stephen Hannock; Wolf Kahn— Landscape of Light; Secrets by Gloria Garfinkel; Andy Warhol—Selections from the Jon Gould Collection. Group shows have included the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Janet Fish, Mary Frank, Keith Haring, David Hockney, Maya Lin, James McGarrell, David Nash, Robert Rauschenberg, Ursula von Ridingsvard, Michael Singer, Tseng Kwong Chi, and Barbara Zucker, as well as a host of regional and emerging talent.
Caroline Staller is a ceramic sculptor and educator whose work captures the peaceful beauty of the everyday. She brings to each piece the joy and freedom found from her upbringing spent exploring the New Mexico desert on horseback. She infuses into her tableaus and carvings a sense of peacefulness and reflection found among the quiet and healing nature of the horse. After completing an MFA in ceramics from the University of Missouri under the mentorship of artists Bede Clarke and Joseph Pintz, she has since gone on to teach at multiple locations including Harvard Ceramics. She loves to encourage students to focus on a close conversation with clay through color, texture, and form. Caroline currently works from her home studio and has been joyfully part of the Pucker Gallery webinARTs for the past four years.
Dr. Carl Herbert is a fourth-generation physician whose career has been devoted to helping infertility patients overcome a wide spectrum of obstacles to create their families. Early in his career he participated in the founding of one of the first eIVF centers in the United States. For more than forty years, Dr. Herbert has contributed to the growth and development of assisted reproductive technologies, continually implementing the evolving techniques and optimizing their clinical applications for care. The ambiguity of a socially awkward accolade, “You got me pregnant!”, has become a recurrent reward, both humorous and joyful. By serendipity, Dr. Herbert walked into Pucker Gallery for the first time in 1985 when visiting Boston for a medical conference. From this point on, his nascent interest in art grew under the generous tutelage and encouragement of Mr. Pucker. A close personal friendship evolved as they visited artists and exhibitions around the world; exchanged thoughts on the experience and intrinsic value that art, in all its many forms, can provide individuals and society; and shared writings which illuminated these principles.
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.