We asked artist Peter Shire — the only American member of the ... She’ll sneak up on me in bed. I use these for normal pencil-type things, like taking notes. But they really come in handy ...

Shire’s biggest missed connection from those magical days, though, was missing out on the famed photo shoot of the Memphis Design Group on Masanori Umeda’s boxing ring–inspired Tawaraya bed.

The exhibition covers the life’s work of Los Angeles–based artist Peter Shire, an eminent ceramicist and former member to the Milan-based design collective Memphis. Shire’s work, spanning 40 ...