Mia O

Mia O is a South Korean-born artist who lives and works in Japan, creating mokuhanga woodblock prints and paintings that channel her deep connection to nature through geometric abstraction and luminous layers of handmade paper. She earned her BFA in Fine Arts from Hong-ik University in Seoul before moving to the United States to pursue an MFA in Painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

Mia's encounter with mokuhanga was serendipitous. In 2000, while still an MFA student, she saw an exhibition of ukiyo-e prints at the Brooklyn Museum, an experience that sparked an enduring fascination with Japanese woodblock printing. Three years later, in 2003, she formally studied traditional mokuhanga at the Nagasawa Art Park Artist-in-Residence program run by the Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory, learning from a professional carver and printer from Kyoto. The independence and simplicity of the medium captivated her, and she speaks of the deep connection she feels to each print pulled from the blocks — every mark carved, inked, and printed by hand, an entirely human creation.

After moving to Japan in 2004, Mia developed her practice while raising her daughter, eventually working in both mokuhanga and painting as complementary modes of expression. She teaches mokuhanga workshops, and her work moves beyond the traditional rectangular format through shaped prints, collage, and origami-influenced folding of washi paper. She layers sheets of handmade paper to create luminous surfaces, often joining them by sewing to emphasize the material strength of washi, and channels her feeling for nature into geometric forms that flip and layer into richly decorative compositions.

Mia O is a member of the Mokuhanga Sisters, an international collective of artists who bonded during shared residencies at the Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory (MI-LAB) between 2017 and 2019 and who collaborate on exhibitions and educational projects. Her work has been shown in numerous group exhibitions internationally, including at the Kentler International Drawing Space in New York, the Southern Vermont Arts Center, the LUX Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the 9th Nakanojo Biennale in 2023. She received a purchase award from the Hawaii State Foundation for Culture and the Arts, placing her work in its Art in Public Places collection, and her prints were selected for the juried exhibition at the 2024 International Mokuhanga Conference in Echizen.