Past, present packaging

In the 1900s, Japanese pottery was all the rage in the West and crafters would mail their wares to the states and Europe packaged in artist prints depicting bucolic and casual scenes of Japanese life. The packaging paper wasn’t considered worth much in Japan; it was torn and crumpled to better secure pottery. But in the West happy customers were saving the tattered prints. Now, the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College has commissioned artists to select prints in the college’s possession and complete the torn pictures in any way they like. The results are a fanciful marriage of the past and today. Participating artists are Ely Kim, Studio Swine (Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves), Gregory Vershbow, and Akira Yamaguchi.

Unimaginable by One Mind Alone: Exquisite Corpses from the William Green Collection of Japanese Prints: Through Aug. 28, 2016. Mead Art Center, Amherst College, 41 Quadrangle Dr., Amherst, (413) 542-2335.

— Kristin Palpini