Tradition Reworked: The Woodblock Prints of Jacek Machowski

Jacek Machowski (b. 1983) is a Polish printmaker and educator who has become an important European voice in contemporary mokuhanga (木版画). Trained in printmaking at the University of Rzeszów, his wider practice encompasses intaglio, relief printing, digital media and graphic design, while Japanese water-based woodblock has become central to his work. Rather than reproducing historical Japanese prints, Machowski approaches mokuhanga as a living process, using water-based pigments, hand printing and the baren while exploring how its methods can be adapted beyond Japan.

Machowski’s woodblocks range from small, closely worked colour prints to large monochrome compositions. His background in graphic design is evident in their strong structure and handling of form and colour, while his mokuhanga employs techniques including bokashi (ぼかし) gradation, karazuri (空摺り) embossing and kirazuri (雲母摺り) mica printing. His subjects are broad, often drawn from ordinary objects, local surroundings and contemporary life, while Japanese print traditions continue to inform both subject and technique. The idea of mono no aware - an awareness of the transience of things - recurs across his wider printmaking. His use of the senjafuda (千社札) format is particularly successful, adapting this traditional Japanese print form to contemporary subjects, while 36 Views of the CHP reworks Hokusai’s famous series around the familiar landscape of Rzeszów.

In 2026, Machowski completed his doctorate at the University of Rzeszów, devoted to adapting mokuhanga to Polish conditions through research into woods, papers, pigments, tools and printing methods. He teaches at the university’s Faculty of Fine Arts and regularly leads mokuhanga workshops and demonstrations, including at the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Kraków. His work has appeared in more than one hundred exhibitions in Poland and abroad, including Sumi-Fusion: International Mokuhanga Exhibition in Nara and Inheritance and Innovation: Mokuhanga and Washi, the juried exhibition of the 2024 International Mokuhanga Conference in Echizen. His studio practice, research and teaching have made him an important advocate for mokuhanga in Poland and a distinctive presence within its wider international community.