Japanese Art Historian and Curator of the exhibition "Washi Transformed" Meher McArthur will explore the wonders of Japanese handmade paper, or washi, and share her experience working with the nine outstanding Japanese contemporary artists featured in the exhibition. Meher McArthur is an Asian art historian specializing in Japanese art, with degrees from Cambridge University and London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). She was Curator of East Asian Art at Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA (1998-2006), Creative Director for the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden, Pasadena (2014-2020), Academic Curator for Scripps College, Claremont (2018-2020) and Art and Cultural Director for JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles (2020-2022). For over a decade, she has curated traveling exhibitions for International Arts & Artists (IA&A), most recently Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper (2021-2024). Her new exhibition for IA&A is KIMONO: Garment, Canvas, and Artistic Muse (2025-2029). She recently curated the exhibition SHIKI: The Four Seasons in Japanese Art at the Sturt Haaga Gallery at Descanso Gardens (February- May 2023). Her major publications include Gods and Goblins: Folk Paintings from Otsu (PAM, 1999), Reading Buddhist Art (Thames & Hudson, 2002) and The Arts of Asia (Thames & Hudson, 2005), Confucius (Pegasus Books, 2011), Folding Paper: The Infinite Possibilities of Origami (IA&A, 2012), New Expressions in Origami Art (Tuttle, 2017), Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper (IA&A, 2021) and the children’s book An ABC of What Art Can Be (The Getty Museum, 2010). She lives in Pasadena, CA.
