Biography
Laura Bortoloni is an Italian visual communication designer, graphic facilitator, lecturer, artist, and printmaker born in Rovigo, Italy, in 1980. She discovered mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock printing) in 2020 and trained with fellow Italian mokuhanga practitioner Mara Cozzolino before continuing her studies at MI-LAB (Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory), where she attended the artist-in-residence program in the spring of 2023 in Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan.
Bortoloni's professional background spans visual communication and graphic design, where she has been recognized with two Gold awards at the European Design Awards (2017 and 2023) and has been selected multiple times for the ADI Design Index and the AWDA Women in Design Awards. Her transition to printmaking reflects a deepening engagement with tactile, handmade processes that complement her design practice.
Her mokuhanga prints have been exhibited internationally in Bristol (UK), Canton (USA), Basel (Switzerland), and Nara (Japan), where she participated in the juried exhibition at the 2021 International Mokuhanga Conference. She was also selected for the 2024 IMC Europe exhibition in Echizen, Japan. Bortoloni is a contributor to Mokublad, the newsletter of the Mokuhanga Magic community based in Belgium.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇮🇹Italy
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 1
Frequently Asked Questions
Laura Bortoloni is an Italian visual communication designer, graphic facilitator, lecturer, artist, and printmaker born in Rovigo, Italy, in 1980. She discovered mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock printing) in 2020 and trained with fellow Italian mokuhanga practitioner Mara Cozzolino before continuing her studies at MI-LAB (Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory), where she attended the artist-in-residence program in the spring of 2023 in Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan.
Laura Bortoloni'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.
Laura Bortoloni is a contemporary printmaker working in the mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock) tradition. Recognition through awards and exhibitions supports growing collector interest. Prices for contemporary mokuhanga prints range from $150 for smaller works to $2,000 for major compositions. Most prints sell in the $240–$800 range. The global mokuhanga community has been growing, with increasing exhibition opportunities and collector interest. Contemporary mokuhanga represents an affordable entry point for collectors.