Robert Russell

Robert Russell is a Dublin-based artist and master printmaker, recognised as one of Ireland's senior leading figures in contemporary printmaking. He began his formal training at the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology in 1979, originally specialising in sculpture while exploring painting and printmaking; his early honours include the Taylor Art Competition Prize for Painting (1980), the Alfred Beit Award, and the Norah McGuinness Award. He completed his studies in 1993.

Russell's technical knowledge spans the full range of intaglio and relief printmaking: etching, screenprint, woodcut, linocut, mezzotint, carborundum, photo-intaglio, and — added more recently — mokuhanga (Japanese water-based woodblock printing). Since 2007 he has served as Studio Director and Master Printer at Graphic Studio Dublin, where he mentors and collaborates with the studio's resident artists and oversees the editioning of fine-art print projects.

His work is held by major institutions in Ireland and internationally, including the National Gallery of Ireland, the Chester Beatty Library, and the British Library. As a working printmaker his subject vocabulary moves between Irish landscape (etchings and carborundum prints of Phoenix Park, Achill, Annaghmakerrig, Howth, the western coast), small-scale still life (the long-running Mezzotint Fruit series — Two Lemons, An Orange, Pomegranate, Limes, Granadilla, Ten Cherries, Two Kiwi Halves, and Red Vessel), and Joyce-derived literary illustration (the 'White Breast of the Dim Sea' Telemachus etchings).

Russell adopted mokuhanga as part of Graphic Studio Dublin's broader engagement with the Japanese water-based woodblock tradition during the studio's 60th anniversary cycle (2020-21), which culminated in the Kanreki exhibition. His mokuhanga 'As mist retreats, Blackthorn stands' (2020, 18 × 26 cm, edition of 10) was selected for the Kanreki exhibition curated by Graphic Studio Dublin and shown at The Model, Sligo (2020) and Graphic Studio Gallery (April 2021), travelling to the satellite events of the 9th International Mokuhanga Conference at Nara Prefectural Cultural Hall (November-December 2021). The print's imagery — Irish blackthorn, retreating mist — represents his characteristic transposition of Irish landscape vocabulary into the mokuhanga register.

The Kanreki exhibition's organising principle was that all participating artists incorporate the colour red into their mokuhanga prints, marking the kanreki (60th-year-cycle) anniversary of Graphic Studio Dublin. Russell appeared in the cohort alongside the Dublin Mokuhanga Group members and invited Japan-based collaborators including Kate MacDonagh, Yoko Akino, Paul Furneaux (Edinburgh), and Katsutoshi Yuasa (Tokyo). His selection — alongside the role of Studio Director — places him at the centre of the Irish mokuhanga community within an active European print circuit.

The Russell artist page at Graphic Studio Dublin currently lists more than thirty works for sale, the majority etchings and mezzotints, with mokuhanga as the newest medium addition. The slug 'robert-russell-mokuhanga' identifies the mokuhanga component of his practice within the Hanga roster; his broader print catalogue at Graphic Studio Dublin extends across multiple mediums.