In this column Glenn Adamson argues that in the contemporary art world, as in the global economy, making something by hand is not necessarily a secure form of authorship.

Fred Ball, one of the great innovators of contemporary enamels, is celebrated in a current retrospective.

Using a variety of cutting, carving and surface techniques, Michael Peterson works the burl portion of the timber he finds in his Northwest locale to create sculptural forms that evoke landscape.

Christopher Lloyd surveys “European Design Since 1985” at the Indianapolis Museum
of Art

Scott Rothstein explores the emotional landscape evoked by Kyoko Okubo’s narrative washi sculptures.

A Boston “diaspora” spread the gospel of the Useful and the Beautiful throughout America at the turn of the 20th century. Beverly K. Brandt, author of The Craftsman and the Critic, explains how it all happened.