Mokublad selected work
A few months ago we launched an open call for contemporary mokuhanga artists, and we received submissions from all over the world!
The selected works will be published in a small newspaper, Mokublad. This format allows us to reach a wide audience and to refer to the original, accessible and commercial nature of Japanese woodblock printmaking. It is part of our Kamishibai project, where we are cycling around Flanders with a travelling exhibition and mokuhanga demonstrations.
We are proud to present you the selected artworks for Mokublad:
Vladimir Invaneau
Miséricorde
Vladimir Invaneau lives and works in Belgium. While studying printmaking, he developed a love for woodcut, which has continued to run like a thread through his artistic practice ever since. To master Japanese woodcut, Vladimir apprenticed with Paul Furneaux and in 2007 participated in the Nagasawa Art Park Project in Japan, the forerunner of the current Mi- Lab. Since 2011, Vladimir has been teaching mokuhanga at the Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent. There he met Soetkin Everaert. In 2022 Vladimir and Soetkin have the opportunity to curate this project on mokuhanga in cooperation with Focus Vakmanschap.
Soetkin Everaert
Donnax Vittatus / 36
Soetkin Everaert lives and works in Belgium. Soetkin studied sculpture at LUCA Brussels. After her studies, she specialized in other disciplines such as ceramics and textile arts. In 2018, she started the art course in free graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent to study Japanese woodcut with Vladimir Ivaneanu. In her artistic work, Soetkin seeks to hold the ephemeral and temporary of “being” and turn it into stillness. In 2022, Soetkin and Vladimir have the opportunity to curate this project on mokuhanga in cooperation with Focus Vakmanschap.
Eva Pietzcker
Forsythia
Eva Pietzcker lives and works in Germany. After her art education, Eva focused on creating work in various printmaking techniques such as dry needle, silkscreen and woodcut. In 2003, she traveled to Japan to participate in the Nagasawa Art Park Project, the forerunner of today’s Mi-Lab, Mokuhanga Innovation Lab. Since then, mokuhanga has been her medium of choice to shape her simple yet complex landscapes and still lifes. In Berlin, Eva has her own graphic workshop where she regularly teaches workshops on mokuhanga to an international audience.
April Vollmer
Love Beyond Reason
April Vollmer lives and works in the United States. As an artist, author and teacher, she has specialized in Japanese woodblock printing and its contemporary application. With her book: Japanese Woodblock print workshop, she gives a good picture of contemporary applications of mokuhanga. April gives workshops in America and abroad. As an active board member of the International Mokuhanga Conference, a triennial conference devoted entirely to mokuhanga, she is fully committed to building an international network of mokuhanga artists.
Benjamin Selby
To Live For Me
Benjamin Selby lives and works in the United States. In recent years, Benjamin’s graphic work has focused on mastering Japanese woodcuts. To this end, he took classes with Richard Steiner at the Kyoto International Mokuhanga School in 2018 and a residency with Terry McKenna at the Karuizawa Mokuhanga School in 2023. Benjamin uses his experiences fishing for catfish, caymans and carp in a treacherous stretch of the Trinity River in Texas as a starting point for his works. In addition to traditional cutting techniques, Benjamin also uses new technology such as laser cutting.
Mara Cozzolino
Heaven And Earth
Mara Cozzolino lives and works in Italy. She has been drawing since childhood and later experimented mainly with etching techniques, such as aquatint in different colors. After a trip to Japan and since participating in an artist residency at the Mi-Lab, Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory, in Kawaguchiko, she works exclusively with Japanese woodcuts. Like April Vollmer, she is a board member of the IMA, the International Mokuhanga Association, helping to further, international spread of Japanese woodcut. Mara regularly exhibits her work in Italy and abroad.
Aagje Vanoverbeke
Dunes De La Slack
Aagje Vanoverbeke lives and works in Belgium. In addition to her training as an interior architect, she took classes in drawing, painting and sculpture. In recent years she has focused mainly on graphics in which she developed a great interest in Japanese woodcut. In the almost ritualistic and enduring nature of the mokuhanga, Aagje finds the perfect materialization of the sense of stillness she experiences and seeks when observing a landscape.
Cameron Bailey
Ascension
Cameron Bailey lives and works in the United States. He studied painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art and came into contact with printmaking beginning in 2016. Since then, he specialized in water-carried woodcut, such as Japanese woodcut. Cameron uses traditional Japanese tools and materials to create atmospheric landscapes and portraits using the reduction method. All colors are printed from a single wood plate, a new piece is cut away each time per printing to arrive at the final image. Cameron exhibits his work both inside and outside America.
Jacomijn den Engelsen
Crazy Chrysanthemum
Jacomijn den Engelsen lives and works in the Netherlands. After her studies in the Netherlands and Belgium, Jacomijn further applied herself to graphics. Woodcut soon became one of her most favorite printing techniques. In her work, color, as well as playing with the dimensions of the image, takes an important role. Her work varies between very small and extremely large. Jacomijn exhibits regularly, both in the Netherlands and abroad. Since her stay as artist-in-residence in 2008 in the Nagasawa Art Park Project in Japan, the Japanese woodcut has become an important medium within her work.
Jane Fulton Suri
Beech Tree
Jane Fulton Suri currently lives and works in the United States, but trained in the United Kingdom. Jane quickly built an international career in design and innovation. In 2014, she apprenticed with professional printmaker Asaka Motoharu in Tokyo. She later took an advanced artist residency at the Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory in Japan. In her work, she evokes the visual experiences of fleeting, everyday moments by using image contrasts such as vague vs. sharp, solid vs. ethereal, etc.. Her work has been shown both in America and abroad.
Yukiko Takahashi
Koushi Syaraku
Yukiko Takahashi lives and works in Japan. Takahashi Kobo was founded in the Ansei period, that is, between 1854 and 1860. Originally, the Takahashi family consisted of master printers of Japanese woodcuts, but from the fourth generation, Takahashi Kobo also became a publisher of Edoprints. Today, Takahashi Kobo is led by Yukiko Takahashi. She learned the tricks of the printing trade from her father. As the sixth generation, she continues the tradition, but also develops new initiatives to further promote and develop the printing and publishing of Edo Prints.
Noor von Winckelmann
Ando Series I
Noor von Winckelmann lives and works in Belgium. Out of her curiosity and eagerness for new techniques, she took a residency at Terry McKenna’s Karuizawa Mokuhanga School after her master’s degree in Free Graphics in 2022. Noor finds inspiration in the beauty of the everyday, such as objects, architecture from her surroundings, but equally in the play of light and shadow. She then translates these impressions into abstracted forms on paper.
Suzanne Van Brussel
Sound Sleeper
Suzanne Van Brussel lives and works in Belgium. During her doctoral period in urban and spatial planning, she discovered the magic of this medium, especially the relief printing techniques, such as the Japanese woodcut, during evening classes in free graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent. In her graphic work, Suzanne explores how to translate the spontaneity and layering of a drawn image by experimenting with different printing techniques and possibly combining them.
Kate MacDonagh
Moving Still II
Kate MacDonagh lives and works in Ireland. As a full-time artist, Kate focuses primarily on the use of Japanese woodcuts. She teaches workshops in both Dublin and Sligo, where she also has her own studio. Kate is a member of The Mokuhanga Sisters, a collective that aims to support the spread of mokuhanga support through connecting and exchanging ideas around this medium.
Karen Helga Maurstig
Suiseki Stone Appreciation III
Karen Helga Maurstig lives and works in Norway. After studying graphics at the Willem De Kooning Hogeschool in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, she went to Japan in 2006 where she participated in NAPP, the Nagasawa Art Park Project, an artist-in-residence to promote mokuhanga and the forerunner of today’s Mi-Lab. Karen uses mokuhanga in her prints, books as well as objects and installations. Her work has been shown both in Norway and abroad.
Laura Bortoloni
Mute Map 02
Laura Bortoloni lives and works in Italy. She works as a graphic designer, creative director and is co-founder of Ida Studio, a design agency that focuses on developing visual identity and communication for institutions in the artistic and cultural sector. From her professional practice, Laura has been bitten by typography and letterpress techniques. She takes this interest into her artistic practice. In 2020, she first came into contact with the Japanese woodcut, and in 2023 she attended an artist residency at Mi-lab, Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory, in Japan.
Natasha Norman
What Joy To Come Falling
Natasha Norman lives and works in South Africa. She currently teaches part-time, writes about art and focuses on her artistic practice. The medium of printmaking and the technical challenges involved in creating an image continually inspire Natasha to create new work. To further open up her inspirational arsenal of printmaking techniques, she attended several residencies on mokuhanga in Japan. In 2019, she co-founded Mokuhanga Kai, an association to promote Japanese woodcut in South Africa.
Patty Hudak
Kites And Darts: 2
Patty Hudak lives and works in the United States. Through scholarships, she had the opportunity to study in Italy and France. In 2016, she took an artist-in-residence at Mi-Lab, Mokuhanga Innovation Lab, in Kawaguchiko and with professional woodcarver Motoharu Asaka in Tokyo. Even though she is a painter by training, mokuhanga is an essential part of her artistic practice. Like Katie Baldwin, Yoonmi Nam and Kate MacDonagh, she is a member of the collective The Mokuhanga Sisters.
Annu Vertanen
20 Coastal Stations- Al Zaatari Angelinna Got Emotional During The Press Conference
Annu Vertanen lives and works in Finland. Annu studied painting, but after her studies became increasingly attracted to printmaking, first as a means to translate her color use from her paintings, but then as an autonomous art form. Her experimentation and research with oil-based and water-based woodcuts, such as mokuhanga, which sometimes lead to room-filling installations, have been awarded several times both in Finland and abroad. Annu currently teaches at the Fine Arts Academy in Helsinki and is also head of the international section of the IMA, International Mokuhanga Association, in Japan.
Paul Furneaux
Outside
Paul Furneaux lives and works in Scotland. Paul, by training as a draftsman and painter, went to Tama Art University in Tokyo in 1997 where he studied mokuhanga for three years. He then gave regular workshops in Japanese woodcutting domestically, including the Edin- burgh Printmaking Studio and abroad, but today focuses entirely on his own work. He is known for his large-format Japanese woodcuts and nowadays also incorporates them into three dimensional wall sculptures. Like no other, Paul succeeds in translating his painting skills into mokuhanga.
Kristi Arnold
Bolster
Kristi Arnold lives and works in the United States, where she currently teaches at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. After studying painting and printmaking in America, Kristi earned a doctorate in the Arts at the University of Sydney in Australia. As well as her works, Kristi travels the world participating in artist residencies, including the Frans Masereel Center and also the Mokuhanga Innovation Lab, Mi-Lab, in Japan. It was there that her interest in Japanese woodcut was sparked. Kristi likes to combine different media. Color always plays an important role in this.
Gauthier Dejonghe
Keien 1
Gauthier Dejonghe lives and works in Belgium. He studied graphics at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent. Even then, Gauthier developed a deep passion for creating images based on mathematical models and sequences. At the same time, coincidence and play are never far away in his work. Through the free graphics course he recently took at the Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent, he came into contact with non-toxic printing techniques, including Japanese woodcut, which he is now fully exploring and combining in his artistic work.
Adelina Iantcheva
Feeling II
Adelina Iantcheva grew up in Bulgaria, but has been living and working in Belgium for almost thirty years. Her artistic adventure really began after she moved to Belgium. Thanks to part-time art education, she immersed herself first in the world of fashion and then in that of painting. Since 2017, she has been completely captivated by the endless possibilities of graphics. Adelina repeatedly researches with great enthusiasm and passion the printing techniques she is offered, including mokuhanga. She consciously looks for the limits and the (im)possibilities that a technique can offer her.
Terry McKenna
Bridge At Nagakura
Terry McKenna lives and works between Australia and Japan. Since 2006, he has been passionate about the art of Japanese woodcut. He is particularly fascinated by the close relationship that exists between craftsmanship and art in this medium. Terry is also the founder of the Karuizawa Mokuhanga School where he regularly conducts mokuhanga workshops and offers the opportunity for artists to take an artist residency. He also published an overview handbook on mokuhanga.
Wim Vaes
Personal Big Wave
Wim Vaes lives and works in Belgium. By day Wim puts together concerts in a concert hall in Ghent, but at night and at other possible times he draws the world as he sees it from his attic studio, mostly in black and white. In the evening and at other possible moments he draws from his attic studio, mostly in black and white, the world as he sees it. Wim graduated as a graphic designer and made illustrations for various newspapers and magazines, but always had a preference for graphics. Since 2022 he has been taking an evening graphics course at the Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent where he came in contact with the magic and challenge of the Japanese woodcut.
Yoonmi Nam
Pop Corn!
Yoonmi Nam lives and works in the United States. She has been an artist-in-residence at Mi-Lab, Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory no less than three times (2004, 2012 and 2019) and received the Keiko Kadota Prize for promoting mokuhanga. Mokuhanga is an important medium within her artistic work, but is complemented by other printmaking techniques such as lithography and also objects in glass and ceramics. Yoonmi exhibits regularly in America and abroad and is currently an active professor of printmaking at the University of Kansas. Yoonmi is also a member of the collective The Mokuhanga Sisters and the IMA, International Mokuhanga Association.
Katie Baldwin
Midnight Garden
Katie Baldwin lives and works in the United States. She currently teaches printmaking and book arts there at the University of Huntsville in the state of Alabama. She works with a variety of printmaking techniques including Japanese woodcut. Katie participated in several residencies abroad and has received grants and awards for her prints and books. She is a member of the collective The Mokuhanga Sisters.
Axel Næss
Yoga Poses
Axel Næss lives and studies in Norway. Axel studies East Asian art forms and their development throughout history. In addition to his theoretical studies, Axel also ventures into creating his own artistic work. During his stay at the Taiwan National University of Arts, in the spring of 2023, thanks to a Japanese master he came into contact with the Japanese woodcut. Since then, Axel has been diligently experimenting with the possibilities of this fascinating medium and exploring what mokuhanga can do for him within his artistic work.
Matthew Willie Garcia
Combustion Of Space-Time
Matthew Willie Garcia lives and works in the United States. He currently works as a studio manager at the well-known Lawrence Art Center in Lawrence, Kansas. Matthew likes to explore the boundaries and intersections between different art genres and techniques. In addition to traditional printmaking techniques, he also uses mokuhanga, animation and large-scale installations to shape his world and push the boundaries of the printmaking medium.
Nel Pak
Verzamelaar
Nel Pak lives and works in the Netherlands. Nel originally studied Dutch Language and Literature at the State University of Utrecht. After teaching for several years, she decided to study drawing and painting at the Rietveld Academy. In 2002, Nel Pak participated in the Nagasawa Art Park Project in Japan, an artist residency around mokuhanga in Japan and the forerunner of Mi-Lab, the Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory. Since then, Nel has been working mostly with Japanese woodcut or drawing in ink. In addition to teaching children, she also gives workshops on mokuhanga to adults in her own studio.