Biography
Irena Keckes is a Croatian-born printmaker and academic based on Guam, whose large-scale monochrome woodcuts and print installations have made her one of the most internationally exhibited mokuhanga practitioners in the Pacific region. She earned a BA in Art Education and Printmaking from the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, in 2000, followed by an MFA 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.
Since 2015, Keckes has served as Associate Professor of Art, specializing in Printmaking and Drawing, at the University of Guam. 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 consistent presence at the International Mokuhanga Conference, presenting academic papers and exhibiting artwork at the second IMC in Tokyo in 2014, 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.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇬🇺Guam
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
Frequently Asked Questions
Irena Keckes is a Croatian-born printmaker and academic based on Guam, whose large-scale monochrome woodcuts and print installations have made her one of the most internationally exhibited mokuhanga practitioners in the Pacific region. She earned a BA in Art Education and Printmaking from the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, in 2000, followed by an MFA from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2005, where she deepened her mastery of Japanese woodblock printing methods.
Irena Keckes'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.
Irena Keckes 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.