Biography
Maki Shimizu is a Japanese artist and illustrator born in Tokyo in 1981 who has been living and working in Berlin since 2006. She studied fine art at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, where her training included printmaking, earning a Bachelor's degree in fine art and design in 2003, and subsequently completed a diploma in graphic design at the University of Bielefeld in Germany.
Shimizu's artistic practice bridges Japanese and European visual traditions, working across illustration, woodcut, and ink painting. Her works executed in traditional Japanese woodcut (mokuhanga) and ink painting techniques reveal an intimacy of spontaneous expression, with her main theme being the way composition made up of bold and simple lines and color surfaces can create two-dimensional media that enables people to share deep emotions. As a visual artist, she focuses primarily on urban and everyday scenes, bringing a comics sensibility to her printmaking work.
Her books 'Yuki 1' and 'Yuki 2' provide insight into her varied drawing style and her work with woodcuts. She has been featured at the International Literature Festival Berlin and through the Berlin Asia Arts Club.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
Frequently Asked Questions
Maki Shimizu is a Japanese artist and illustrator born in Tokyo in 1981 who has been living and working in Berlin since 2006. She studied fine art at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, where her training included printmaking, earning a Bachelor's degree in fine art and design in 2003, and subsequently completed a diploma in graphic design at the University of Bielefeld in Germany.
Maki Shimizu'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.