Biography
Mara Cozzolino is an Italian printmaker born in Turin in 1975 who is one of the leading mokuhanga practitioners in Europe. Living and working in northwest Italy near Avigliana, she has been drawing since childhood and initially experimented with etching techniques, particularly aquatint in different colors. Her deepening interest in printmaking led her to discover mokuhanga in 2011, and after two trips to Japan, she fell in love with the water-based Japanese woodblock printing technique and has worked with it exclusively since.
Cozzolino is a full-time artist whose practice is entirely self-directed: all her blocks are carved and then hand-printed by herself on Japanese paper. All her prints are inspired by things she loves and are completely original. Part of her income comes from teaching Japanese woodblock workshops around northern Italy, making her an important figure in the dissemination of mokuhanga knowledge in the region. She has trained other notable Italian mokuhanga artists, including Laura Bortoloni.
She serves on the International Advisory Board of the International Mokuhanga Association (IMA) and has been deeply involved with the international mokuhanga community. In 2022, she had a solo exhibition at MI-LAB titled 'Ten Years,' marking a decade of her mokuhanga practice. She contributes to Mokublad, the newsletter of the Mokuhanga Magic community. Her work was selected for the juried exhibition of the 2024 International Mokuhanga Conference — the fifth — held in Echizen, Japan. She sells prints through Etsy and has been featured by the Japanese Paper Company.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇮🇹Italy
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Subjects
- CatsCraftspeople
- Works Indexed
- 11
Frequently Asked Questions
Mara Cozzolino is an Italian printmaker born in Turin in 1975 who is one of the leading mokuhanga practitioners in Europe. Living and working in northwest Italy near Avigliana, she has been drawing since childhood and initially experimented with etching techniques, particularly aquatint in different colors. Her deepening interest in printmaking led her to discover mokuhanga in 2011, and after two trips to Japan, she fell in love with the water-based Japanese woodblock printing technique and has worked with it exclusively since.
Mara Cozzolino'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.
Mara Cozzolino's prints frequently feature cats, craftspeople.
Woodblock Prints by Mara Cozzolino (11)
IMC 2024 Echizen submission
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Grazie grazie grazie! A tutti voi che siete passati a curiosare, a tutti voi che avete trovato un regalo di natale per la vostra casa o da donare a qualcuno, a voi che siete passati per brindare al vernissage oppure oggi. Sono stati 3 week end...
Oggi ultimo giorno di apertura della mia personale “10+1 anni di Xilografia Giapponese”. Vi aspetto dalle 10 alle 13 e dalle 14.30 alle 19.00 #personale #mokuhanga #printmaker (at Centro Storico di...
Quando dagli errori nascono cose belle. Nella stanchezza e nella fretta ho utilizzato la matrice sbagliata per ristampare la mia “View of Silence” e me ne sono accorta non dopo una ma dopo due stampe ☺️ Quindi ecco ‘You and me only’ edizione...
kittehkats: “Masaharu Aoyama - “Cat on Roof” ”
Oggi 9 ore di orario continuato in mostra, quasi 400 persone passate in visita, più di 40 stampe vendute dall'apertura. Non so come ringraziarvi, ma tutto questo vale la fatica della preparazione e dell'installazione e il freddo di una giornata...
taday is the day! vi aspetto dalle 16! #exhibition #opening #xilografia #giapponese #mokuhanga #personale #inaugurazione (at Centro Storico di Avigliana) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClsrtTjoAUC/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
I finished this prints 2 weeks ago.. but something wasn’t really right, so I let it hung on my studio wall and now and then I looked at it to try to sort out what to change. Last week I decided to carve the black block some more because I wanted...
Untitled
Buon solstizio a tutti. Io lo celebro con questa stampa, che vi ho già fatto vedere ma non “presentato per bene”. “Sisterhood” 96x66cm, dedicata a tutte le donne che mi hanno aiutato in questo anno decisamente non felice, ed a una in particolare che...
