Jacomijn den Engelsen

Jacomijn den Engelsen is a Dutch artist born in Breda in 1958 whose large-format woodcuts printed on paper and canvas have established her as a distinctive voice in contemporary mokuhanga practice in the Netherlands. Over the past fifteen years, she has focused primarily on woodcut printmaking, developing a body of work characterized by unusually large formats for the graphic arts medium.

Den Engelsen's imagery draws from the visual and physical experience of her immediate surroundings -- the landscapes where she lives and works, and the people around her. She records these observations through drawing and photography, then develops them into woodcuts in her studio through a process she describes as almost ritualistic in its enduring, meditative nature.

In the slow, deliberate character of the mokuhanga process, den Engelsen finds the perfect materialization of the sense of stillness she experiences when observing a landscape. This alignment between technique and artistic vision gives her prints their contemplative quality, where the physical labor of carving and printing mirrors the patient attention of sustained looking.

Her work has been exhibited internationally, including in the exhibition 'Mokuhanga and Beyond' in Toronto in 2011. She is listed in the Mokumap directory maintained by Mokuhanga Magic, and her work has appeared in the organization's publication, Mokublad. Her prints are also available through the Belgian Art Gallery.