Enduring Impressions: Contemporary Woodblock Prints

This exhibition, presented in collaboration with the Portland Japanese Garden in Oregon, explores how select contemporary artists throughout the world are incorporating the techniques of traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking (mokuhanga) into their practices today.  

As Japanese society modernized in the early 20th century, the printmaking tradition associated with influential artists such as Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) waned in popularity. In the 1990s, the San Francisco–based publisher and printer Crown Point Press (est. 1962) spearheaded a revival of interest in the medium, encouraging artists to produce new works in collaboration with traditional Japanese print specialists. Public enthusiasm for this initiative further intensified with the development of artist residency programs in Japan and with the formation of the International Mokuhanga Association in 2011.  

Enduring Impressions features the work of six rising stars in the international mokuhanga community: Yoonmi Nam, professor of printmaking at the University of Kansas; April Vollmer, a New York-based printmaker and author of Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop: A Modern Guide to the Ancient Art of Mokuhanga (2015); Takenaka Kenji, a Kyoto-based printmaker and author of Woodblock Printing: Traditional Techniques and its Design (2021); and Hiroki, Setsuko, and Miho Morinoue, co-founders of Donkey Mill Art Center (est. 2001) in Hōlualoa, Hawai‘i. The second iteration of this exhibition will be on view at the Portland Japanese Garden from March 7 to June 22, 2026.

Support provided by
The Robert F. Lange Foundation

Image credit
Yoonmi Nam (n.d.). The Four Seasons (detail), 2019. Suite of four woodblock prints; ink and color on paper.