Biography
Melissa Schulenberg is an American artist and printmaker who serves as the Charles A. Dana Professor of Art and Art History at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where she has built a nationally recognized mokuhanga teaching program and introduced generations of students to Japanese woodblock printing. A member of the Mokuhanga Sisters collective, Schulenberg has been instrumental in expanding the practice of mokuhanga within American higher education.
Schulenberg holds a BA from Bowdoin College in Maine, an MA in Printmaking from Purdue University in Indiana, and an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her printmaking education provided a broad foundation in Western techniques before she discovered mokuhanga, which has become the central focus of her research and studio practice since 2014.
Her engagement with mokuhanga deepened through three artist residencies at the Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory in Fujikawaguchiko, Japan, where she studied the technique under MI-LAB's instructors and immersed herself in the materials, tools, and philosophy of water-based woodblock printing. These residencies transformed her artistic practice and her teaching, leading her to develop mokuhanga courses at St. Lawrence University alongside her existing offerings in drawing, relief printmaking, intaglio, and book arts.
Schulenberg's teaching has had a notable multiplying effect on the mokuhanga community. Her student Brendan Reilly, who enrolled in her mokuhanga course with no prior art experience, discovered a deep affinity for the medium and was subsequently invited to exhibit alongside established practitioners at the Kentler International Drawing Space. This kind of intergenerational transmission -- from MI-LAB to American university to student artist -- exemplifies the pathway through which mokuhanga continues to grow and diversify.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most notably in Australia, Ireland, Japan, and New Zealand. She is a member of the Mokuhanga Sisters and has participated in the International Mokuhanga Conference in Nara (2021) and the IMC 2024 Americas exhibition. She currently resides in Canton, New York.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇺🇸United States
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 2
Frequently Asked Questions
Melissa Schulenberg is an American artist and printmaker who serves as the Charles A. Dana Professor of Art and Art History at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where she has built a nationally recognized mokuhanga teaching program and introduced generations of students to Japanese woodblock printing. A member of the Mokuhanga Sisters collective, Schulenberg has been instrumental in expanding the practice of mokuhanga within American higher education.
Melissa Schulenberg'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.
Melissa Schulenberg is a contemporary printmaker working in the mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock) tradition. Their work contributes to the living tradition of Japanese woodblock printing. Prices for contemporary mokuhanga prints range from $100 for smaller works to $1,500 for major compositions. Most prints sell in the $180–$600 range. The global mokuhanga community has been growing, with increasing exhibition opportunities and collector interest. Contemporary mokuhanga represents an affordable entry point for collectors.
