Asheville Artists Collaborate to Bring Gallery Mugen Back Post-Helene

Celebrated potter, ceramist, and musician Akira Satake cites two favorite aspects of working in Asheville: “the amazing and inspiring nature and a friendly and open-minded community of artists.”  

Born in Osaka, Japan, Satake ran a music production company in Brooklyn for more than two decades before moving to Swannanoa in 2003. A decade later, he opened Gallery Mugen (“mugen” means infinite in Japanese) in the River Arts District (RAD), showcasing his mugs, vases, sculptures, and other alluring works.  

Unfortunately, Gallery Mugen's ground-floor studio flooded during 2024’s Hurricane Helene, and Satake lost hundreds of pots and all his work in progress. His kiln, wheel, tools, and materials also succumbed to the flooding of the French Broad River. Although Satake cites his former studio and gallery at Riverview Station as the heart and soul of his work, he’s worked tirelessly with his community to rebuild in a new location.  

Not long after the hurricane, he dropped by Rite of Passage, a clothing store in RAD, which is on high enough ground that it remained safe from rising waters. “Libby O’Bryan [the owner of Rite of Passage] and I had been acquaintances through mutual friends in the music and arts communities,” says Satake. “After the flood receded, she and her family volunteered at Riverview Station to help salvage and clean. It occurred to me to ask if she would consider temporarily allowing me to show my work in her store’s beautiful gallery space, and she graciously agreed.”  

In mid-January, after two months at Rite of Passage, Satake announced that this new location for Gallery Mugen would be permanent.

“I didn’t see how I would be able to afford keeping the retail shop open after the storm,” says O’Bryan. “We just wouldn’t have the tourist foot traffic to validate the costs. But Akira and his team were available and had the resources to be present in the shop, selling both Akira’s work and inventory from Rite of Passage, so that has been incredibly valuable to us. We have a shared clientele who values process, quality, and attention to detail.”