Biography
Alex Mankiewicz is an illustrator and printmaker based in Kyoto and Byron Bay, Australia, whose graphic approach to image-making is rooted in his formative years as a printmaker in Kyoto. Having lived and worked in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States before settling between Japan and Australia, Mankiewicz brings a distinctly international perspective to his practice, which encompasses illustration, graphic narrative, editorial work, and mokuhanga woodblock printing.
Mankiewicz began his career as a printmaker, and the graphic sensibility of printmaking continues to inform all of his visual work, from published illustrations to gallery prints. His printed images are characterized by bold compositional choices and a narrative clarity that reflects both his printmaking training and his parallel work as a graphic novelist and book illustrator.
His published works include 'When the World was Soft: Yindjibarndi Creation Stories,' published by Allen and Unwin in 2024, which retells Indigenous Australian creation narratives through his distinctive visual language. He collaborated with the Kurdish-Iranian writer Behrouz Boochani on 'Until We Are All Free' (2018), and has created several picture books including the 'Wee Charles' series (2015-2019) and 'Home Free' (2017). He has been a contributor to Kyoto Journal since 2015 and has published work in the Griffith Review.
Mankiewicz's work has been recognized by American Illustration and the Australian and New Zealand Illustration Awards, and he was shortlisted for the Comic Arts Awards of Australia in both 2019 and 2021. His current projects include 'SINgularity,' a series of seven speculative fiction graphic novellas, and 'Dog Days,' an exploration of animal idioms.
In 2024, Mankiewicz exhibited at the Fifth International Mokuhanga Conference in Echizen, Japan, where his work was included in the juried Asia exhibition. His participation in the conference reflects his ongoing engagement with the mokuhanga tradition from his base in Kyoto, one of the historic centers of Japanese woodblock printing.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 17
Frequently Asked Questions
Alex Mankiewicz is an illustrator and printmaker based in Kyoto and Byron Bay, Australia, whose graphic approach to image-making is rooted in his formative years as a printmaker in Kyoto. Having lived and worked in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States before settling between Japan and Australia, Mankiewicz brings a distinctly international perspective to his practice, which encompasses illustration, graphic narrative, editorial work, and mokuhanga woodblock printing.
Alex Mankiewicz's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.
Alex Mankiewicz is a contemporary printmaker working in the mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock) tradition. Recognition through awards and exhibitions supports growing collector interest. Prices for contemporary mokuhanga prints range from $150 for smaller works to $2,000 for major compositions. Most prints sell in the $240–$800 range. The global mokuhanga community has been growing, with increasing exhibition opportunities and collector interest. Contemporary mokuhanga represents an affordable entry point for collectors.
