Bing Dawe

Bing Dawe is a New Zealand sculptor whose work often engages with environmental themes and the natural forms of South Island landscapes; Reed's portrait places him within a series documenting fellow practitioners through mokuhanga. The print likely presents a tightly framed likeness, with the subject's features distributed across multiple blocks to allow controlled overlays—a portrait approach that depends on the registration accuracy mokuhanga makes possible through kentō marks. Hand-pulled with a [baren](/glossary/baren) on dampened [washi](/glossary/washi), the impression accumulates rather than impacts, producing a softness in transition that suits portraiture. Reed's participation in the 2021 IMC, with [sumi](/glossary/sumi) as its theme, foregrounds the role of black ink in conveying volume and character without the polychrome registers of [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e). The Dawe portrait, like others in the series, functions as both art-historical record and technical demonstration—an argument that mokuhanga's visual vocabulary, often associated with Edo-period genres, can carry contemporary likeness with the same fidelity.