Dominique Rodride

Dominique Rodride is a French mokuhanga artist who works with the traditional Japanese technique of water-based woodblock printing. Based in France, Rodride contributes to the country's growing community of mokuhanga practitioners, building on France's deep traditions in fine art printmaking while engaging with the distinctive material and aesthetic possibilities of the Japanese water-based method.

France has a particularly rich context for mokuhanga practice. The country's tradition of estampe -- fine art printmaking -- provides an established infrastructure of galleries, collectors, publishers, and educational programs that support printmaking as a serious artistic medium. At the same time, the historical French fascination with Japanese art, dating back to the japonisme movement of the late nineteenth century when Impressionist painters were profoundly influenced by ukiyo-e woodblock prints, creates a cultural resonance for French artists who adopt Japanese printmaking techniques.

Rodride participated in the 2024 International Mokuhanga Conference held in Echizen, Japan, with work included in the juried exhibition's Europe section. The IMC is the primary international forum for water-based woodblock printmakers, bringing together practitioners from around the world for exhibitions, workshops, and discussions about the present and future of the medium. The 2024 conference's location in Echizen -- one of Japan's most important historical papermaking regions -- connected participants with the living craft traditions that produce the essential materials of their practice.

The 2024 IMC's juried exhibition, which grouped work by region -- Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania -- reflected the growth of mokuhanga across the European continent alongside the rest of the world. This Franco-Japanese artistic exchange benefits both communities, as French aesthetic sensibilities and Japanese technical traditions combine to produce work that extends the possibilities of the medium.

Rodride's practice represents this cross-cultural engagement, working within a medium that demands both the technical discipline of Japanese craft tradition and the personal artistic vision valued in the French art world. The water-based printing process offers qualities -- translucent color, atmospheric depth, the integration of image and paper surface -- that complement the French tradition of nuanced color and light in printmaking.

France's institutional support for fine art printmaking, including dedicated galleries, publishers, and educational programs, provides a context in which mokuhanga can be appreciated as part of a broader conversation about the future of the printed image. Rodride's inclusion in the 2024 IMC introduces the work to the international community while reinforcing the presence of French artists in the global mokuhanga movement, which has expanded with each conference cycle since the first IMC in 2011.