Don Driver

Don Driver, from Reed's MANZ - Medal Art New Zealand series, honors the late New Plymouth artist (1930–2011) celebrated for assemblages incorporating tarpaulins, ropes, found textiles, and industrial materials. The mokuhanga print likely references Driver's hard-edged constructivist sensibility and his banner-like compositions, translating fabric folds, eyelets, or geometric panel divisions into the language of the carved block. Made for the 2021 IMC juried exhibition in Nara under the sumi theme, the work would emphasize black ink and tonal restraint, with bokashi gradations standing in for the worn surfaces and weathered patinas characteristic of Driver's source materials. The water-based Japanese technique — kento-registered, baren-pulled onto dampened washi — offers a counterintuitive register for Driver's bricoleur aesthetic: the disciplined hand of mokuhanga distilling the rough vernacular of his assemblages into clean printed form. The portrait reflects Reed's curatorial range across the MANZ set, which positions painters and assemblage artists alongside medallists and jewellers within a single printed frame.