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 craft of Japanese copperplate printing — and on the scholarly study of the techniques and history of copperplate printmaking in Japan. 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 doctoral research on the techniques and history of Japanese copperplate printmaking.

His own studio practice extends from this scholarly base. He works in mezzotint and etching, often in combination, and his practice is unusually research-driven for the contemporary print scene. Under the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs' Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists he spent 2008–2009 in France pursuing copperplate research, connecting his Tama Art University formation to the European intaglio tradition.

His exhibition and award record is substantially European. He received the Grand Prix at the 4th International Small Etching Biennial Graphium (Timişoara, Romania, 2017) and the Graphics Award at the Premio Combat Prize (Livorno, Italy, 2014), among other international print-biennial honours. In 2025 the National Museum in Gdańsk (Muzeum Narodowe w Gdańsku), Poland, presented a solo exhibition of his work, "Masaaki Ohya: Mysteries of Nature." His prints are held in public and private collections in Japan and Europe.

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

Within contemporary Japanese printmaking, Oya represents a scholarly, research-driven approach to copperplate intaglio. 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 between Japanese craft tradition and European print theory.