Meher McArthur

Meher McArthur is an independent Asian art historian and is Academic Curator at Scripps College, Claremont. Previously she was Curator of East Asian Art at Pacific Asia Museum (now USC PAM) and now curates exhibitions for Southern California galleries, En Gallery at the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden in Pasadena, and for the traveling exhibition company International Arts & Artists (IA&A), including Above the Fold: New Expressions in Origami (2015-2019) and her upcoming exhibition, Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper (from 2021). She is developing YOKAI: Spirits, Specters and the Supernatural in Japanese Woodblock Prints for Scripps College (2022).

Meher writes regularly for Buddhistdoor.net and contributes to KCET Artbound, Artillery and Orientations magazines. 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), and An ABC of What Art Can Be (The Getty Museum, 2010).

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"Bitter Crop," Alison Saar, 2018 | Courtesy of the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, Claremont, CA

Three SoCal Art Institutions Showcase the Art of Alison Saar This Fall

Powerful images of Black women have featured prominently in Saar’s work for decades. This fall, three institutions will show her work in a time when it’s more relevant than ever.

Male Harp Player of the Early Spedos Type, 2700–2300 B.C., Cycladic. Marble, 14 ⅛ x 11 1/16 in| The J. Paul Getty Museum, 85.AA.103 and a recreation via Facebook | Irena Ochódzka with canister vacuum

Take Part in the Art: SoCal Museums Find Creative Ways to Connect with Audiences

Museums had been enticing audiences through their doors with great exhibitions and programming, but the pandemic put a stop to that. Here are some ways they’re continuing their mission while in quarantine.

Vera C. M. Staples, "Olvera Street, El Pueblo de Los Angeles (with Los Angeles City Hall in the background)," c. 1935, oil on canvas

From the Shadows to the Spotlight: Masterworks by California’s Unknown Women Artists

An exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of History demonstrates how much of California's artistic history has been lost by ignoring the works of female artists.

Vietnamese monks-in-training walk the streets of Koreatown | Don Farber

L.A. Photographer Don Farber Documents Buddhist Life in the City

Don Farber, a Los Angeles-based photographer and practicing Buddhist, has devoted four decades now to documenting Buddhist life throughout Asia and in the West as part of his spiritual practice.

Yayoi Kusama, All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, 2016 | Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / Singapore and Victoria Miro, London. © Yayoi Kusama

Of Polka Dots and Pumpkins: Yayoi Kusama’s Infinite Imagination Lights Up Los Angeles

Japan’s most famous avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama opens an exhibition at the Broad, bringing the artist's famed infinity rooms into a deeper focus.

We Are More Similar Than We Realize: Interconnecting Identities in the Work of Ahree Lee

Ahree Lee explores the paradox of similarity and difference, demonstrating that even in a world that seems increasingly fragmented culturally, racially and economically, we are more similar than we realize.

'No More Japanese Wanted Here': When Japanese Americans Were Forced Into Internment Camps

On the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, the 1942 mandate that forced Japanese Americans into detention camps, an exhibition reminds viewers of the grave injustices of the past, while making parallels to political actions today.

Let All the Children Boogie: The Blue Ribbon Children’s Festival at the Music Center

Begun in 1970, the Blue Ribbon Children’s Festival is California’s longest continuing free arts education initiative and has introduced more than 845,000 young L.A. students to the magic and inspiration of the performing arts.

The Damaging Effects of Trump's Travel Ban on Arts and Culture

Since President Trump signed an executive order to suspended refugee admissions and block citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, museum directors around the U.S. have expressed concern about its impact.

Mackenzie, Irish, German, Dutch, Scottish and English, Oat Face, 2016. Portrait from Jaydee Dizon's Our Home Grains series. (cropped)

Portraits Document Women and the Grains Tied to Their Ancestral Homeland

Photographer Jaydee Dizon takes the portraits of women from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, their faces sprinkled with a grain (or other staple food) that is part of their cultural identity.

"Flying Feathers" by Echo Lew, 2016, Photography of moving light printed in ink, with acrylic on fine art paper.

The Calligraphic Light Drawings of Echo Lew

Visual artist Echo Lew combines long exposure photography with drawing, and his results are vibrant patterned images that allude to nature.

kio griffith "revolutions per minute" installation

Red Wheelbarrows and Whispering Rainbows: The Sonic and Visual Art of Kio Griffith

Kio Griffith draws from both Japanese traditions and modern Western modes of art to construct engaging mixed-media works.

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Meher McArthur