photo by: Contributed
Wabwila Mugala and Jason Wang
A ceramic artist who explores pottery’s social role and a printmaker whose work speaks to African heritage are the Lawrence Arts Center’s 2025-2026 Artists in Residence.
Each year, the Arts Center selects two artists — one in printmaking and one in ceramics — to create new work at the center and share their expertise with local artists and the center’s students. This year’s residents are printmaker Wabwila Mugala and ceramic artist Jason Wang, according to a news release from the Arts Center, and their residencies will run through the end of next July.
Mugala, who was born in Zambia, is an interdisciplinary artist whose work centers on “print processes grounded in design and textiles,” according to the release. She has a bachelor’s in fine arts from UNC Greensboro and a master’s from Arizona State University; her work has been exhibited recently in shows in Arizona and South Carolina, and she has been featured in Southwest Contemporary magazine.
“Mugala’s practice engages with the call-and-response within the African diaspora through her own visual glossary functioning as pattern, design and language,” the release said.
Wang, originally from Kansas City, creates work that is “deeply informed by the social aspect of pottery,” according to the release, including an “exploration into dinnerware vessels.” He earned a bachelor’s in fine arts from the Kansas City Art Institute and a master’s from Ohio University. In 2021, he was a resident at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, and while at Ohio University he co-founded a conference on atmospheric firing techniques.
As the new residents arrive, the 2024-2025 residents are wrapping up their yearlong terms at the Arts Center. Ceramic resident Gabriel John Poucher will continue his career next year as the Turner Teaching Fellow at Alfred University in New York, and printmaking resident Anthony Corraro will join the Kansas City Art Institute as a Foundations Lecturer.
“We hope that he’ll be returning as an instructor at the Arts Center soon since he is staying in the region,” the press release said. “We wish them both all the best as their careers continue to grow and flourish!”
