Theaster Gates and Rebuild are thrilled to invite you to attend a Mingei Masterclass with Mashiko-based Japanese potter and ceramic artist, Tomoo Hamada. The grandson of Shoji Hamada, a "Living National Treasure" in Japan major figure in the Mingei folk art movement in Japan and co-founder of The Leach Pottery with British ceramicist Bernard Leach, Tomoo continues his grandfather's and father's influence on Japanese craft culture today.

Hamada currently lives in Mashiko, Japan, on the original compound his grandfather built. Hamada has exhibited, lectured, and given workshops internationally and was integral in helping the pottery community of Mashiko rebuild from the devastating Tohoku earthquake of 2011. In 2012, he became Director of the Shoji Hamada Memorial Mashiko Sankokan Museum.

Mingei, a Japanese folk craft movement that emphasized the beauty of everyday objects made by unknown makers, has become a grounding philosophy in Gates's own artistic practice. This "art of the people," leveraged in pre-war Japan as a means of promoting a national Japanese craft identity in the face of Western cultural hegemony, drew inspiration from Korean ceramic traditions of beauty in simple, handmade, and anonymous wares. In 1936, with potter Kawai Kanjiro and Mingei founder Soetsu Yanagi, Shoji Hamada opened the first Japan Folk Craft Museum, returning the arts of the people to the people.

On May 21, please join Theaster Gates and Rebuild for this special masterclass. Demonstrating the power of the hand, generational craftsmanship, and skill and knowledge transferrence, Tomoo's masterclass will inaugurate a future of experimental programs at Rebuild that celebrate craft excellence as a central tenet of the organization's work.

For more information, please reach out sabina@theastergates.com.

Mingei Masterclass with Tomoo Hamada