Biography
Judith Elisabeth de Haan is a Dutch-born visual artist based in the Hardangerfjord region of Norway, whose woodcut prints and landscape sculptures are deeply informed by the overwhelming natural environment of western Norway. Born in 1970 in Stadskanaal, the Netherlands, she studied architecture at the Technical University of Eindhoven before completing a Bachelor in Fine Arts at the AKI Academy of Art in Enschede in 1995.
De Haan has lived and worked in Norheimsund, Hardanger, since 2008, and her art is shaped by the daily experience of fjord landscapes, mountains, and the interplay of light and weather that characterizes Norway's western coast. While her primary medium is woodcut, she also creates sculptural works, mainly for landscape and site-specific projects, reflecting her architectural training.
In 2016, she completed the Advanced Program at MI-LAB (Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory) in Kawaguchiko, Japan, deepening her engagement with Japanese woodblock printing techniques and materials. This training enriched her existing woodcut practice with the water-based printing methods, specialized papers, and philosophical approach of the mokuhanga tradition.
Since 2010, de Haan has served as Mokuhanga/Printmaking Coordinator and Studio Manager at AiR Arthouse Messen in Ålvik, Norway, a position through which she supports visiting artists working in printmaking and mokuhanga. Her work has been exhibited at the International Mokuhanga Conference in Nara (2021) and Echizen (2024), and she has shown work internationally through Proyecto'ace and CircleProArt.
Her artistic philosophy centers on seeking the human presence within overwhelming natural landscapes, finding traces of inhabitation, memory, and emotional resonance in environments that might otherwise appear purely geological.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇳🇱Netherlands
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 1
Frequently Asked Questions
Judith Elisabeth de Haan is a Dutch-born visual artist based in the Hardangerfjord region of Norway, whose woodcut prints and landscape sculptures are deeply informed by the overwhelming natural environment of western Norway. Born in 1970 in Stadskanaal, the Netherlands, she studied architecture at the Technical University of Eindhoven before completing a Bachelor in Fine Arts at the AKI Academy of Art in Enschede in 1995.
Judith Elisabeth de Haan'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.