Tom Kristensen

Tom Kristensen (born 1962) is an Australian woodblock printmaker who works in the Japanese mokuhanga (sōsaku-hanga) tradition, bringing a contemporary and often playful sensibility to the medium. He was born in Australia to a Danish father and a German mother, who had migrated there the year of his birth. He originally trained in science — taking a university degree in biology with a focus on botany and ecology — and worked for over two decades as a garden designer before establishing himself as a printmaker. He is largely self-taught in woodblock printing.

Kristensen is best known for his '36 Views of Green Island' series, begun in September 2004, which echoes the conceit of Hokusai's celebrated 'Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji' — depicting a single landmark from many vantage points and in varied conditions — around Green Island rather than Fuji. Each print in the series is issued in a limited edition of twenty-five impressions and requires four to six separately carved and hand-printed woodblocks.

His technique is a hybrid of old and new: he self-carves and self-prints his editions with natural Japanese pigments on handmade washi paper, in the sōsaku-hanga manner of the artist as sole author of the work, while also incorporating digital photography and computer-based design so that the finished prints often carry visible signs of computer-based transformation. Alongside the Green Island project he has produced other bodies of work, including a 'Kaiju Manga' series that draws on Japanese popular culture with characteristic wit.

Kristensen's work was recognized internationally by Eric van den Ing of Saru Gallery, and his prints are held in private collections. He is regarded as one of the more original and entertaining voices in contemporary mokuhanga — an artist who demonstrates that traditional Japanese woodblock technique can be a vehicle for resolutely contemporary subjects.