Biography
Sayuri Kobayashi (born 1976, Tokyo, Japan) is a contemporary Japanese printmaker who works principally in copperplate engraving and intaglio, producing prints that combine engraved line with collage. Her training pairs Japanese printmaking instruction at the Dōmu Printmaking Workshop (銅夢版画工房) in Tokyo with study at the Atelier Contrepoint in Paris, the intaglio studio that carries on the lineage of Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17.
Her mature 2020s practice, as documented through the CWAJ Print Show, presents engravings such as 'Le scope imparfait' (不完全な器械, 'The Imperfect Instrument,' 2025, 65 × 90 cm), in which precisely cut engraved line is set against fields of collaged red, ochre, and dark tones. That work was selected for the 68th CWAJ Print Show (2025). Her earlier published works include 'Bebop in Red' (2023, 96 × 35 cm, engraving and collage), a tall vertical composition that establishes the same vocabulary of engraved line against coloured collage at a smaller scale.
The Atelier Contrepoint is the Paris studio that continues the intaglio tradition of Stanley William Hayter, the English printmaker whose workshop, Atelier 17, drew international printmakers from the postwar period onward; it took the name Atelier Contrepoint after Hayter's death and has gone on teaching his approach to colour intaglio. The Dōmu Printmaking Workshop, by contrast, is a Tokyo studio rooted in the Japanese copperplate tradition, and Kobayashi's dual training situates her practice between the two.
Kobayashi's compositions read as small mechanical or geometric forms — the title 'Le scope imparfait' (roughly 'the imperfect instrument') signals an interest in scientific and measurement-related imagery — set against grounds built from layers of coloured paper. The pairing of a precision-engraved central form with a freer coloured ground is characteristic of the intaglio approach associated with the Atelier Contrepoint training.
Within the contemporary Japanese print scene Kobayashi's work has circulated principally through the CWAJ Print Show and occasional gallery showings; biographical details beyond her birth year, location, and training institutions are not currently surfaced through public-facing channels.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1976
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Subjects
- Abstract
- Works Indexed
- 1
Frequently Asked Questions
Sayuri Kobayashi (born 1976, Tokyo, Japan) is a contemporary Japanese printmaker who works principally in copperplate engraving and intaglio, producing prints that combine engraved line with collage. Her training pairs Japanese printmaking instruction at the Dōmu Printmaking Workshop (銅夢版画工房) in Tokyo with study at the Atelier Contrepoint in Paris, the intaglio studio that carries on the lineage of Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17.
Sayuri Kobayashi was active born in 1976. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Sayuri Kobayashi'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.
Sayuri Kobayashi's prints frequently feature abstract.