IMC 2024 Echizen submission

This print represents Kowalik's submission to the Fifth International Mokuhanga Conference, held at the Imadate Art Center in Echizen City from April 4 through 8, 2024. Selected for the juried Europe and Africa exhibition, the work was produced under the conference theme 'Inheritance and Innovation: Mokuhanga Artists Explore Japanese Paper.' Mokuhanga prints are pulled by hand using a [baren](/glossary/baren) onto dampened [washi](/glossary/washi), with water-based pigments applied to carved cherry or shina blocks — a process that allows for the soft tonal gradations ([bokashi](/glossary/bokashi)) and translucent layering characteristic of the medium. Echizen, the host region, has been a center of Japanese papermaking for roughly 1,500 years, and the 2024 conference framed submitted works as direct dialogues with that papermaking heritage. Kowalik's participation situates her within a generation of European mokuhanga practitioners who have trained in the water-based Japanese method as an alternative to the oil-based Western relief tradition, contributing to the technique's continued circulation beyond Japan.