FORT GREENE-BASED POTTER MING YUEN-SCHAT PICKED TO EXHIBIT @ AMERICAN FINE CRAFT SHOW @ BROOKLYN MUSEUM NOV. 21-22

Ming Yuen-Schat, Mings Monsters, whose studio is in Fort Greene, joins two jewelers, a handbag designer, and two woodworkers who also work in Brooklyn and are among 90 exhibitors at the third American Fine Craft Show Brooklyn at Brooklyn Museum, November 21-22, 2015.

Yuen-Schat, born in Taiwan, might be speaking for many artisans when he expresses his interest in the interplay between modernism and wabi-sabi. “As an artistic form,” wrote the potter on his website, “wabi-sabi embraces that which is imperfect, asymmetrical, and deliberately crude, which is diametrically opposed to the influence of commercialized modernism which values slick, high-tech, machine-made objects and considers imperfection to be a defect.” Ming, who has a Masters in Architecture from MIT, describes how he designs and crafts his “monsters,” the bottles, bowls, flower containers, sculptures, trays and vases he makes in his three collections: Jewel, Chalice and Flame. They are “hand-shaped, usually on the wheel, and then altered. Ming’s finger marks are on every monster.” Flames, smoke and ash from a wood kiln paint the pots with color and texture.

The tickets to the show, in the regal Beaux-Arts Court, include general admission to the Museum. The craft show is timed for holiday shopping but not too close to Hanukah and Christmas so visitors can also take in the magnificent current and long-term exhibitions at the Museum. For more information visit www.brooklyncraftshow.com.