Irena Keckes

Irena Keckes is a Croatian-born printmaker and academic based on Guam, whose large-scale monochrome woodcuts and print installations have made her an internationally exhibited mokuhanga practitioner in the Pacific region. She earned a BA in Art Education from the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, in 2000, followed by an MFA in Printmaking from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2005, where she deepened her mastery of Japanese woodblock printing methods.

Keckes completed a PhD in Fine Arts at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, New Zealand, in 2015, with research focused on contemporary printmaking and expanded forms of print. Her doctoral work explored the possibilities of mokuhanga beyond traditional boundaries, investigating the medium's potential for installation, three-dimensionality, and site-specific practice informed by ecologically conscious philosophies.

Keckes has taught at the University of Guam since 2015, where she is now Professor of Art, specializing in Printmaking and Drawing. Her position in the Western Pacific makes her a rare bridge between the mokuhanga communities of Japan, Oceania, and the Americas.

Keckes has been a recurring presence at the International Mokuhanga Conference, presenting academic papers and exhibiting artwork at the third IMC at the University of Hawaii in 2017, the fourth IMC in Nara in 2021, and the fifth IMC in Echizen in 2024. Her research interests span contemporary printmaking, expanded forms of print, non-toxic printmaking processes, and the intersection of art with ecologically informed Buddhism.

Her artwork has been exhibited internationally in numerous group and solo exhibitions across Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas. She has also undertaken artist residencies in New Zealand, where her work investigated connections between landscape, cultural memory, and the materiality of the woodblock printing process.