Born in Sapporo, Hokkaido in 1989, Sayaka Kawamura is a contemporary printmaker whose work interweaves family memory, regional heritage, and the long traditions of Japanese woodblock printing. After studying printmaking at Kyoto Seika University (2013) and completing her graduate training at Tama Art University (2015), she was appointed an Associate Member of the Japan Print Association in 2017. Much of Kawamura’s imagery is inspired by stories passed down through her family—particularly her father’s upbringing in the port city of Otaru, which appears throughout her prints in the form of boats and maritime motifs that honor her ancestors and the landscapes of northern Japan.
Kawamura’s artistic process is grounded in an intimate relationship with material and scale. She prints on thickened kozo paper from Tosa—custom-made by papermakers so she can work at large dimensions without damaging the sheet as she moves around it. Because her compositions are expansive, she places the paper flat on her worktable and walks around the perimeter, using the baren to apply pressure evenly rather than leaning across the surface. She delights in the tactile decisions of printmaking, selecting harmonizing colors and building subtle textures with watercolor inks, which lend the soft, luminous palette characteristic of her work. Though petite herself, Kawamura’s figures—particularly her women—are intentionally voluminous; as she explains, “I want to embrace the world. I like the fact that these women take up a lot of space.”
Deeply informed by the visual DNA of ukiyo-e, Kawamura’s prints draw on the genre’s strong design sensibility, purposeful linework, and unshaded fields of color while translating these traditions into a contemporary idiom. Her work has been presented widely in Japan and internationally, with solo exhibitions in Tokyo, Kyoto, Gunma, Hong Kong, and major appearances at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. She has received numerous awards, including the Grand Prize at the 11th Kochi International Print Triennial (2020) and the Constellation Studios Prize at the International Woodblock Print Conference (2021). Her prints are held in significant public collections, including LACMA, Harvard Art Museums, the Tama Art University Museum, and the Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts. In 2023, two of her works were featured in Mid-Century to Manga: The Modern Japanese Print in America at the James Michener Museum—an especially meaningful milestone for the artist, whose practice continues to evolve the expressive possibilities of Japanese printmaking.
