Biography
Henrik Hey is a Danish-born visual artist based in Utrecht, the Netherlands, whose traditional Japanese woodblock prints have earned him international recognition as both a skilled artisan and a contemporary artist working within the mokuhanga tradition. Born in Denmark in 1950, he graduated from the Danish Design School in Copenhagen in 1981 and relocated to Utrecht in 1983, where he has lived and worked since.
Hey's engagement with mokuhanga began in 2000 when he participated in the Nagasawa Art Park artist-in-residence program in Japan, founded by Keiko Kadota. There he studied under master printer Tadashi Toda and carver Shunzo Matsuda, both from Kyoto, and Kyoko Sakamoto from Nagoya University of Art. This immersion in the traditional craft foundations of Japanese woodblock printing set the course for his subsequent career.
His work is organized into thematic series that demonstrate both technical command and personal vision. His '12 Views of Mount Fuji' comprises thirteen mokuhanga prints depicting the iconic mountain under varying weather and atmospheric conditions, a project that consciously engages with the long tradition of Fuji imagery in Japanese printmaking. Other series explore architectural subjects, Tour de France cycling themes, and the transient beauty of spring snow.
Hey has participated actively in the international mokuhanga community, exhibiting at the first International Mokuhanga Conference in Kyoto, subsequent IMC events in Hawaii, Nara, and Echizen, and IMPACT printmaking conferences in locations including China, Dundee, Bristol, and Tallinn. His work is held in the collection of the Centraal Museum in Utrecht.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇩🇰Denmark
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 2
Frequently Asked Questions
Henrik Hey is a Danish-born visual artist based in Utrecht, the Netherlands, whose traditional Japanese woodblock prints have earned him international recognition as both a skilled artisan and a contemporary artist working within the mokuhanga tradition. Born in Denmark in 1950, he graduated from the Danish Design School in Copenhagen in 1981 and relocated to Utrecht in 1983, where he has lived and worked since.
Henrik Hey'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.
Henrik Hey 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.
