Biography
Emi Hamano (born 1990, Tokyo) is a Japanese printmaker whose intaglio practice combines two-plate, two-colour etching with an exacting geometric vocabulary, producing small-format works in the 22.5 x 22.5 cm range that recall the precisionist tradition of mid-century European intaglio while remaining grounded in Tokyo's contemporary print scene. Her selection for the 3rd PATinKyoto Print Art Triennale 2022 placed her within the Kansai print-triennial circuit alongside her ongoing Tokyo gallery practice.
Hamano completed her training at Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geidai), graduating from the Department of Painting, Oil Painting Major, in 2013, and from the same department's Printmaking Studio with a graduate degree in 2015. The Geidai Painting Department's Printmaking Studio is one of the principal Japanese print-training environments and has produced a recognisable cohort of younger Tokyo intaglio specialists; Hamano sits firmly within that lineage.
The mature practice centres on small etched plates, often two-plate, two-colour, on Arches paper or Shin-Torinoko paper, with an emphasis on geometric line, repeat structure, and thin, controlled colour. Documented works include 'lines (e.l)' (2014, two-plate, two-colour etching, 350 x 350 mm), 'square lines 2' (2014), 'Garten' (2014, two-plate, two-colour etching on Arches, 225 x 225 mm), 'lines 2' (2014, etching on Arches, 225 x 225 x 32 mm), 'memo (a source of elephant)' (2013, two-plate, two-colour etching, 1360 x 1610 x 32 mm — her most ambitious-scale early work), 'stitch' (2015, etching on Shin-Torinoko paper, 380 x 380 mm), and 'Form / Division' (2015, etching on Arches, 1143 x 1143 x 32 mm). The PATinKyoto-featured 2022 works include 'Square Lines 3,' 'Crystal View,' 'Random Composition,' and 'by chance 4.'
Her exhibitions are concentrated at Open Letter (Tokyo), with solo shows 'form / category' (June 28 – August 30, 2015) and 'Trace of Uncertainty' (2017), and at Gallery Soumei-do with 'rain to snow' (2018) and the 'Soumei-do Contemporary Exhibition Vol.1' (2019). Group exhibitions include the 38th University Print Exhibition at Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts (2013), 'MIRAGE' at Metal Art Museum Light Valley Chiba (2014), and the G9 Exhibition (2013).
Her works are held in the public collections of Teikyo University and the Metal Art Museum Light Valley (Chiba). Hamano represents a category of younger Tokyo printmakers whose deep technical commitment to intaglio and small-format precisionist line-and-color etching has produced a small but rigorous body of work, with a particular gravitational pull toward Open Letter and Gallery Soumei-do as the gallery base.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1990
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Subjects
- Geometric
- Works Indexed
- 6
Frequently Asked Questions
Emi Hamano (born 1990, Tokyo) is a Japanese printmaker whose intaglio practice combines two-plate, two-colour etching with an exacting geometric vocabulary, producing small-format works in the 22.5 x 22.5 cm range that recall the precisionist tradition of mid-century European intaglio while remaining grounded in Tokyo's contemporary print scene. Her selection for the 3rd PATinKyoto Print Art Triennale 2022 placed her within the Kansai print-triennial circuit alongside her ongoing Tokyo gallery practice.
Emi Hamano was active born in 1990. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Emi Hamano'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.
Emi Hamano's prints frequently feature geometric.
