Masaaki Oya

Masaaki Oya (大矢雅章) is a Japanese printmaker and educator whose practice centres on copperplate intaglio — etching, mezzotint, and the broader 'métier' of Japanese copperplate printing — and on the doctoral-level scholarly examination of the techniques and history of copperplate printmaking in Japan since 1960. He has been Associate Professor in the Department of Painting, Print-making Specialization at Tama Art University in Tokyo since April 2018.

Oya completed his Bachelor's degree at Tama Art University's Department of Painting (1996) and his Master's degree at the Tama Art University Graduate School of Fine Arts (1998). He continued at Tama Art University through to a Doctorate in Fine Arts (2016), with a dissertation titled 'Japanese Copperplate Printing's Métier After 1960.' The doctoral work examines the technical and conceptual lineages of Japanese mezzotint and etching practice from the postwar generation forward, with particular attention to the tools and surface-marking techniques that distinguish Japanese copperplate practice from European intaglio.

His own studio practice extends from this scholarly base. He works in mezzotint and etching, often in combination, and is one of the few contemporary Japanese printmakers who actively publishes research on plate-marking tools — including in the journal of the Print Society of Japan — alongside his exhibition work. He has held the French government's New Artists Overseas Fellowship (2008–2009) to study under the Parisian printmaker Hector Sonnier, an experience that connected his Tama Art University formation to the lineage of mid-twentieth-century French intaglio that flowed into Yozo Hamaguchi and the Hamaguchi-line of contemporary Japanese mezzotint.

His exhibition record is principally European: Grand Prix at the Graphium 2017 (4th International Small Etching Biennial Graphium, Timişoara, Romania); Three Equal Prizes at the 19th International Print Biennial Varna (Bulgaria, 2017) and again at the 14th edition (2007); Graphics Award at the PREMIO COMBAT PRIZE (Italy, 2014); and a 2025 solo exhibition 'Masaaki Ohya: Mysteries of Nature' at the National Museum in Gdańsk (Muzeum Narodowe w Gdańsku), Poland (March–May 2025). His work is held in major Polish, Bulgarian, Taiwanese, and Brazilian print collections in addition to Japanese institutional holdings.

In Japan he is represented by s+arts (Tokyo), where he held the solo exhibition 'Masaaki Ohya: Correspondances' in October–November 2023, and he serves as a director on the board of the Japan Print Association (Nihon Hanga Kyokai). The combination of his Tama Art University teaching role, his board position at the Japan Print Association, and his sustained European exhibition history places him among the most internationally connected Japanese copperplate printmakers of his generation.

Within contemporary Japanese printmaking, Oya represents the scholarly-doctoral continuation of the Hamaguchi mezzotint and Tama Art University intaglio lineage. His practice is at once a working studio output and a research programme — an unusual combination in the contemporary Japanese print scene — and the result is a body of work that operates fluently between Japanese craft tradition and European print theory.