Biography
Terumi Oishi (born 1988, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese contemporary printmaker working primarily in etching, currently based in Tokyo. She completed graduate studies at Joshibi University of Art and Design (the principal Japanese women's art university) and is a member of the Japanese Print Association (Nihon Hanga Kyokai). At 37 she is part of the early-mid-career cohort of Joshibi-trained Tokyo women printmakers active in the 2020s CWAJ Print Show.
Her recent practice, as documented in the 68th CWAJ Print Show 2025, presents large-format horizontal etching compositions — exemplified by 'border 202501' (2025, 59 × 87 cm). The 'border' title and the year-and-number suffix ('202501,' indicating year 2025 and a first print of the series) signal an ongoing project organized around boundary, edge, or interface imagery. The 87 cm horizontal dimension is at the upper end of comfortable etching plate work — large enough to require careful press registration but within the typical scale of single-plate intaglio practice.
Oishi's training at Joshibi University of Art and Design's graduate program connects her to the same Joshibi-trained Tokyo printmaking lineage as Yurie Mamiya (b. 1972), Suzuki Tomoe (correspondence), and others; the institution's continuous transmission of intaglio technique across multiple generations of women printmakers is a notable feature of the contemporary Tokyo print scene. The 'border' subject and the substantial horizontal format together suggest a contemporary engagement with concepts of boundary, marginality, or transition that contrasts with the more figurative or landscape-based registers of senior Joshibi-trained printmakers.
The etching technique — the principal medium of Joshibi-trained Tokyo intaglio printmakers — produces line through acid-biting on a wax-resisted copper plate. Oishi's commitment to etching as her principal medium places her within a particular technical lineage that has been historically dominant within Joshibi printmaking and has continued through to the present.
The Japanese Print Association membership signals her established mid-career practice. Membership is sustained through annual exhibition participation and is the principal credential for working Japanese printmakers within the institutional system. Beyond the CWAJ catalogue entry and association-membership listing, biographical detail and a fuller exhibition history are not currently surfaced through public-facing online channels.
Within the contemporary Japanese print scene Oishi represents the early-mid-career cohort of Joshibi-trained Tokyo women etchers active in the 2020s. Her CWAJ Print Show 2025 selection confirms her continuing activity within the principal annual juried showcase for current Japanese print activity. Note that 'oishi' as a Japanese surname (大石) is shared with the artist Tamayo Oishi (b. 1999), also in this batch — but the two are distinct artists at different career stages.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1988
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Subjects
- Abstract
- Works Indexed
- 1
Frequently Asked Questions
Terumi Oishi (born 1988, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese contemporary printmaker working primarily in etching, currently based in Tokyo. She completed graduate studies at Joshibi University of Art and Design (the principal Japanese women's art university) and is a member of the Japanese Print Association (Nihon Hanga Kyokai). At 37 she is part of the early-mid-career cohort of Joshibi-trained Tokyo women printmakers active in the 2020s CWAJ Print Show.
Terumi Oishi was active born in 1988. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Terumi Oishi'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.
Terumi Oishi's prints frequently feature abstract.