Ansei Uchima

This woodblock print carries only the artist's name as its title, suggesting either a self-referential work or a piece that has lost its original designation in catalog records. For an artist who spent his career bridging Japanese and American artistic traditions — born in Stockton, California to Japanese immigrants, trained in both countries, and committed to the sosaku-hanga philosophy of complete artistic self-sufficiency — a print titled simply with his own name may constitute a statement of identity. The work stands within Uchima's broader practice of abstract woodblock printing, where the carved and printed surface becomes a field for exploring form, color, and the specific textures that only hand-pulled woodblock can produce.