The art of mokuhanga, Japanese woodblock printing, is rooted in the natural world. Enduring Impressions exhibiting artist and expert printmaker April Vollmer (author of Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop, Watson-Guptill, 2015) invites audience members on a journey of inspiration through the coastal ecology of Southern California to the flora and fauna of New York, touching on the inspiration and themes that underpin her work. This behind-the-scenes look at Vollmer’s extensive printmaking practice offers an exclusive perspective on the vibrant contemporary landscape of the International Mokuhanga Movement, from one of its forefront artists. Stephen Salel, Curator of Japanese Art at the Honolulu Museum of Art and Co-Curator of Enduring Impressions: Contemporary Woodblock Prints, will moderate the talk.
The art exhibition, Enduring Impressions: Contemporary Woodblock Prints is on show now through June 15, 2026.
About the speakers:
Stephen Salel is the Robert F. Lange Foundation Curator of Japanese Art at the Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA). He received his MA in Art History from the University of Washington, Seattle, where he specialized in early modern Japanese painting. In addition to Enduring Impressions: Contemporary Woodblock Prints, which were displayed at HoMA August 30–December 14, 2025, past exhibitions include Lyrically Rebellious: The Prints of Onchi Kōshirō (August 23, 2025–April 12, 2026). Salel’s recent publications include “One Hundred Dystopian Views of Japan: Urban Poverty in the Graphic Narratives of Tsuge Tadao” and “From Expressions of Religious Devotion to Comic Art: The Evolution of Sugoroku Imagery,” both in Impressions: The Journal of the Japanese Art Society of America (No. 44, Part 2, Autumn 2023 and No. 45, Part 2, Autumn 2024, respectively).
April Vollmer is an artist, author, and educator who has practiced mokuhanga for over 30 years. She has visited Japan multiple times to deepen her knowledge, including as an artist-in-residence at the Nagasawa Art Park program in 2004 and MI-LAB in 2013. She is the author of the acclaimed book Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop (Watson-Guptill, 2015) and continues to be a spokesperson and advocate for contemporary and international mokuhanga practices.
Vollmer’s prints are often autobiographical, revolving around personal experience spent between the metropolis of New York and the coastal ecology of California. For Enduring Impressions, she shared a series based on images of local birds flying over California’s native coastal vegetation: wild cucumber, primrose, and tule. While she often explores themes around how nature is affected by climate change, pollution, population pressure and
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