Printmakers and photographers are exploring alternative methods of expression but yet still honouring traditional methods all over the world. Some are exploring digital art, some are using 3d printers, and some are using traditional Japanese printing techniques. You never know what you will see at the Annex as part of the annual Kyoto art festival.

Akitoshi Matsubara combined photography with computer graphics/digital imagery with handmade paper (called washi in Japanese). Flowing Water

Yojoro Yasuda is one of the few photographers in the group. This one, entitled Water Lily or 睡蓮 (Sui-ren), was printed on canvas, so it was difficult to tell if it was a photograph or a realistic painting.

Karen Oremus, Canadian residing in the United Arab Emirates, created a series entitled Not Visible from This Latitude dealing with her mother’s death. She pin-pointed the location of the stars within the Crucis (Cross) constellation at the exact time and date of her mother’s death, wondering if that was where her mother’s soul went. Why that constellation? Her mother was Catholic, so the Cross symbolizes the Catholic religion. Why “not visible”? As humans on earth, we can never see or experience the locations of those stars. The pieces are silkscreen, pigment prints, and cut with a laser.

The details about all six stars in the constellation can be seen here.

Karen Oremus used to work on archeological digs, so she is familiar with mapping locations.

Irit Sapir, who lives and works in Israel, exhibited a series of three photographs about nature.

Virginia Marum, a printmaker, lives and works in the USA. Revelations, the etching with mixed media and collage on the bottom, won the Kyoto Shimbun prize. Congratulations!

Steven Boothe is an artist photographer who lives and works in New Zealand. His Portrait of a Girl was printed on BFK Rives paper.

John Greco is a master printmaker who lives and works in the USA; he owns and runs Josephine Press. The Secret is a four-colour etching with aquatint.

Taina Rantala, lives and works in Finland. She works primarily in woodcut relief prints, including this one entitled Deep.

Janti Hannele Salminen, another Finnish printmaker who lives and works in Finland, also featured nature in her woodblock print called, The Roots/Juuret.

Tuula Moilanen is a Finnish printmaker who used to live in Japan but now lives in Finland for most of the year. Her woodblock relief prints are printed in the traditional mokuhanga style and usually feature humour. The first picture is Urban Holiday, and the bottom is Sweet Dreams. She has also written a book on mokuhanga and relief printing techniques.

Katariina Mannio is another Finnish printmaker, and this woodblock print is called Heaven on Earth/Andalucia.

Man of the Finnish artists were also involved in a printmaking and book art exhibition at Kyoto Paradise at the same time as the show at the Annex.

Isn’t it interesting that the International Exhibition of Art at the Annex that is part of the Kyoto Art Festival does not feature any mokuhanga/woodblock relief prints by Japanese artists?