Biography
Junji Amano is a Japanese printmaker whose work is represented by Yoseido Gallery, one of Japan's most venerable contemporary print galleries, established in 1953. Amano works in copperplate engraving and related intaglio techniques, creating prints that engage with the intersection of traditional Japanese aesthetics and modern artistic expression.
Amano contributed to the landmark collaborative project One Hundred Views of Tokyo: Message to the 21st Century, organized by the Japan Print Association between 1989 and 1999. This ambitious undertaking brought together one hundred of Japan's most prominent contemporary printmakers to create a collective artistic statement for the new millennium, each contributing a single print depicting an aspect of Tokyo as it approached the twenty-first century. Amano's contribution, Water Front, is held in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, situating his work alongside the finest contemporary Japanese prints in one of the world's leading art museums.
The One Hundred Views of Tokyo project was conceived as a modern continuation of the great meisho-e tradition of famous place prints, echoing Hiroshige's celebrated One Hundred Famous Views of Edo from the 1850s. Amano's inclusion in this select group of one hundred artists reflects his standing within the Japanese print community and the esteem in which his work is held by his peers and by Yoseido Gallery, which has been instrumental in promoting contemporary Japanese printmaking internationally for over seven decades.
Amano's prints demonstrate the technical range and artistic ambition that characterize the best of contemporary Japanese printmaking, applying modern intaglio techniques within Japan's long tradition of the printed image. His work continues to be exhibited through Yoseido Gallery and at print fairs and exhibitions dedicated to contemporary Japanese graphic art.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Subjects
- LandscapesSilkscreenSnow Scenes
- Works Indexed
- 4
Frequently Asked Questions
Junji Amano is a Japanese printmaker whose work is represented by Yoseido Gallery, one of Japan's most venerable contemporary print galleries, established in 1953. Amano works in copperplate engraving and related intaglio techniques, creating prints that engage with the intersection of traditional Japanese aesthetics and modern artistic expression.
Junji Amano'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.
Junji Amano's prints frequently feature landscapes, silkscreen, snow scenes.
Original prints by Junji Amano can be found in collections including Art Institute of Chicago.
