Li Hongwei is a Chinese sculptor who currently works and lives in Beijing and New York. He earned degrees at two preeminent art schools: The Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (BFA in sculpture, 2005) and Alfred University in Alfred, New York (MFA in ceramic art, 2007). He subsequently taught and published in both China and the United States. In 2015, he was invited to lecture as a visiting artist at Harvard University. He is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics (Geneva), the Chinese Sculpture Institute (Beijing), and the Taylor Foundation (established in 1844; Paris).

Li Hongwei’s works have been collected by: The British Museum, London; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Alfred Ceramic Art Museum, NY; China APEC International Conference Center; The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, Texas; and others. Over the years, his works have been exhibited in: The National Art Museum of China; The Louvre; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Fox Art Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania; and the Dublin Castle in Ireland, among others. In 2013, he was awarded the Taylor Prize by the 2013 France International Salon.

Andrew Maske specializes in the arts of Asia, focusing especially on ceramic art in Japan from the sixteenth century to the present. He is also interested in artistic connections between East Asian nations, both historical and contemporary. An added interest is the cultural context of artworks in Asia, including connoisseurship, collecting, display, performance, and use.

Dr. 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 artworks 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 the instrument shamisen. In 2006-2007 he held a Fulbright research fellowship in China to study the development of contemporary ceramic art there.