Down EAST Asia: An unexpected partnership at MOTHERS Gallery

MOTHERS Art & Antique Gallery in Columbia Falls is pleased to present their next exhibition, “Down EAST Asia,” featuring the fine arts, crafts and antiques of Japan, China, Korea and India — and exploring their unexpected connections with Down East Maine.

An opening reception was held on Aug. 31, and the exhibition will be on display for the month of September.

This exhibition celebrates the 200th anniversary of the little known but very real partnership between these two distant and different coastal cultures.

Down East Maine’s shipbuilders built vessels involved in the 19th-century global trade, indirectly linking through East Asian hubs like Canton (Guangzhou), Shanghai and Yokohama to New England ports. Maine’s whaling ships traveled Pacific routes, occasionally stopping in East Asian ports after Japan opened to foreign trade. Asian imports such as tea, porcelain, silk and lacquerware entered Down East Maine via Boston merchants and local captains, influencing local material culture.

Down East residents participated in missionary and educational efforts in China, Korea and Japan. Local veterans from World War II and the Korean War broadened cultural understanding, influencing community interest in East Asia. Formal sister-city and exchange programs link Down East Maine and Japanese communities through academic and cultural exchanges.

Maine seafood such as lobsters, scallops and sea cucumbers entered East Asian markets, especially in Japan and South Korea. China became a major market for Maine seafood exports, with direct air freight and marketing campaigns boosting trade. East Asian tourism to Down East Maine, including visits to Acadia National Park, grew steadily. Today, collaborative marine science research with Japan and South Korea addresses aquaculture, fisheries management and kelp farming.

Artistic traditions showed growing influence from East Asian minimalism and natural motifs. Museums in Maine began acquiring and exhibiting East Asian art and artifacts, enhancing local appreciation. The Haystack Mountain School of Crafts on Deer Isle became a pivotal craft institution, drawing East Asian artists and strengthening cross-cultural artistic dialogue. Exhibitions like “Far East to Down East” in 2023 at MOTHERS Art & Antique Gallery featured contemporary Japanese artists, highlighting the continuing artistic dialogue.

Besides MOTHERS Gallery, local artists such as Wendilee Heath O’Brien blend East Asian sumi ink painting techniques with Maine landscapes, demonstrating artistic fusion. Kazumi Hoshino, a Japanese-born stone sculptor based in Downeast Maine since 2006, creates works blending Japanese aesthetics and Maine’s natural environment, and maintains a studio on Kitagi Jima, Japan, symbolizing trans-Pacific artistic links.

Other galleries and institutions furthering this intercontinental exchange include Artemis Gallery (Northeast Harbor), Down East Gallery (Bar Harbor), and the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge Art Gallery, all of which have exhibited Asian-influenced or East Asian-related art. The Hudson Museum at the University of Maine includes East Asian art exhibits expanding cultural education.

Whitney Vosburgh, co-owner and curator of MOTHERS Gallery, said, “Having grown up living around the world as my father worked for Pan Am including Japan and India, I’m always pleasantly surprised to keep on being reminded on the many generally unseen links between Down East and East Asia.”

MOTHERS Gallery brings the world to Downeast and Downeast to the world. The gallery offers carefully curated local, regional and international fine and folk art, antiques, silver, nautical pieces, baskets and rare objets d’art.

MOTHERS Art Gallery is at 19 Church Hill Circle, Columbia Falls. Learn more at www.mothersartgallery.com, or call 510-504-1109.