Biography
Elizabeth Forrest is an American mokuhanga artist who has participated in multiple International Mokuhanga Conferences, establishing herself as a consistent presence in the international water-based woodblock printing community. Based in the United States, she has exhibited work at both the 2021 IMC in Nara, Japan, and the 2024 IMC in Echizen, demonstrating sustained engagement with the medium and its global network of practitioners.
Forrest's participation in the 2021 IMC in Nara was part of a juried international exhibition that selected work from submissions worldwide. The 2021 conference took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period that challenged the international mokuhanga community's ability to gather and exhibit but also demonstrated its resilience and commitment to maintaining cross-cultural connections despite extraordinary circumstances. Artists who participated in the 2021 exhibition showed determination to sustain their practice and their relationship to the international community through a period of disruption.
At the 2024 IMC in Echizen, Forrest exhibited in the Americas regional exhibition, which represented the current state of mokuhanga practice across North and South America. The Americas contingent has grown substantially since the first IMC in 2011, reflecting the establishment of workshops, teaching programs, artist groups, and supply networks that support mokuhanga practice across the Western Hemisphere. Forrest's participation across two conference cycles places her among the experienced practitioners whose continued involvement provides continuity and depth to the community.
The Echizen conference location held particular significance for all participants, as the region in Fukui Prefecture is one of Japan's most important centers for washi papermaking, with a continuous tradition extending back over 1,500 years. For printmakers who work with washi daily in their studios, the opportunity to visit the place where their paper is made -- to see the raw kozo fibers, the traditional beating and sheet-forming processes, and the finished papers drying in the mountain air -- deepens their understanding of the materials that are fundamental to their practice.
Forrest's sustained mokuhanga practice contributes to the vitality of the American printmaking scene, adding the distinctive technical and aesthetic vocabulary of water-based woodblock printing to a national tradition that has historically been dominated by lithography, intaglio, and oil-based relief methods.
The progression from the 2021 to the 2024 conference also reflects the broader maturation of the American mokuhanga community. Artists who participated in multiple conferences have developed deeper practices, more refined technical skills, and stronger connections to the international network of practitioners. Forrest's continued presence at these events contributes to the community's continuity and depth, providing a thread of experience that connects one conference cycle to the next and helps newer practitioners find their footing within the international movement.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇺🇸United States
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Subjects
- Moonlight
- Works Indexed
- 3
Frequently Asked Questions
Elizabeth Forrest is an American mokuhanga artist who has participated in multiple International Mokuhanga Conferences, establishing herself as a consistent presence in the international water-based woodblock printing community. Based in the United States, she has exhibited work at both the 2021 IMC in Nara, Japan, and the 2024 IMC in Echizen, demonstrating sustained engagement with the medium and its global network of practitioners.
Elizabeth Forrest'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.
Elizabeth Forrest's prints frequently feature moonlight.
Elizabeth Forrest is a contemporary printmaker working in the mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock) tradition. Their work contributes to the living tradition of Japanese woodblock printing. Prices for contemporary mokuhanga prints range from $100 for smaller works to $1,500 for major compositions. Most prints sell in the $180–$600 range. The global mokuhanga community has been growing, with increasing exhibition opportunities and collector interest. Contemporary mokuhanga represents an affordable entry point for collectors.
