Biography
Raluca Iancu is a Romanian-American printmaker and educator who serves as Associate Professor in Art and Visual Culture, Printmaking, at Iowa State University. She is the Vice-Chair of the International Mokuhanga Association (IMA) for 2025-2027, making her one of the organization's senior leaders.
Iancu earned her MFA in Studio Art, Printmaking, from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and her BFA in Printmaking from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She investigates her mokuhanga practice through other forms of printmaking, travel, and learning from diverse teachers and instructors around the world. Her work explores disaster, memory, and vulnerability through different media, ranging from printmaking to performance, to edible art and printed objects.
She received a $7,000 Research Grant for 'Mokuhanga and Washi in Japan' from the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities at Iowa State University. In 2024, she participated in the MI-LAB (Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory) residency program as part of the Advanced Program D in Echizen, Japan. She has also been a resident at Studio Kura in Itoshima, Japan.
Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca (Romania), CICA Museum (Korea), International Print Center of New York, Bradbury Art Museum (Arkansas), Art Institute of Boston, and the Hunterdon Museum (New Jersey). She has had solo exhibitions including 'Over + Under' at the Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames, Iowa.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇺🇸United States
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Subjects
- TreesSilkscreen
- Works Indexed
- 2
Frequently Asked Questions
Raluca Iancu is a Romanian-American printmaker and educator who serves as Associate Professor in Art and Visual Culture, Printmaking, at Iowa State University. She is the Vice-Chair of the International Mokuhanga Association (IMA) for 2025-2027, making her one of the organization's senior leaders.
Raluca Iancu'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.
Raluca Iancu's prints frequently feature trees, silkscreen.
Raluca Iancu 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.
